Sonic Universe
by Scyphi
Summary: Sonic has gone up against quite a few enemies, so much so, it seems like he's seen them all. Even stopping Eggman for the odd evil scheme seems ho-hum. But Sonic's about to go up against what could be his greatest enemy yet. Himself. Please R&R!
1. Prologue

Summary: Sonic has gone up against quite a few enemies, so much so, it seems like he's seen them all, and that there's nothing he can't handle. Even stopping Eggman for the odd evil scheme seems ho-hum. But Sonic's about to go up against what could be his greatest enemy yet. Himself.

Rated: T (just to play it safe)

Well, after several months of debating whether or not I would do it, I'm finally breaking down and writing a Sonic fanfic. Please note that this is my first Sonic fan-fic, and that I'm not as fluent in this genre as some of you readers no doubt will be. So if I get any details about the Sonic universe wrong, don't hesitate to correct me (I just ask you be polite about it) and I'll do my best to fix it. However, I feel confident that I can limit all of that to a minimum, as I've done alot of research on the games lately (catch up really, the last Sonic game I sat down to play was Sonic 2), confident enough to begin.

Anyway, here's hoping... :)

S O N I C

U N I V E R S E

P r o l o g u e

Night had fallen. Normally, by this time, everyone was working on going to sleep. Cities were winding down for the night. Nature was calming down for the day. A kind of silent lull fell over the countryside.

Everywhere, that is, except for one spot.

"EGGMAN!"

With a roar, Sonic the Hedgehog zipped through the woodlands at his usual insane speeds, his eyes focused on one thing. Cruising over the tops of the trees was the all-too-familiar rounded shape of the Eggmobile, and within it was the all-too-familiar figure Sonic always seemed to be battling. In one of Eggman's hands was the telltale glow of the Chaos Emerald Eggman had just succeeded in stealing.

Of course, this was naturally why Sonic was here, chasing after him. Just like all the times past, there was no way he was going to let Eggman hang on to that emerald for long. He knew it, Eggman knew it, they all knew it. Why in the world the looney kept trying to steal them, though, was beyond Sonic.

"Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed, putting on a surge of speed to keep up with the accelerating Eggmobile. "Give it up! Chaos Emeralds are off-limits to you, ya know!"

"Why do you think I'm _stealing _it then?" the mad scientist called back.

Then, with a laugh, urged the Eggmobile to go even faster. It was fruitless, because Sonic could easily keep up with the fleeing craft, no matter how fast Eggman got it to go. There was no reason Eggman could escape without a fight, and even if he did, Sonic would always track him down again. It seemed to happen so frequently now that it was almost dull. To Sonic, it was almost like watching the same movie over and over again, which he just didn't have the attention span for. Too slow.

For once, he wished, that Eggman would just call it quits, even if it didn't last forever. Just _something _so Sonic could perhaps find something _better _to do than to be constantly chasing Eggman.

"You'll never catch me, hedgehog!" Eggman randomly challenged. As usual, he seemed overly confident. "You may run fast, but there is no way you can reach me from down there!"

"Oh, really..." Sonic said to himself, getting a sly look, and saw he was approaching a large boulder. One side was fairly smooth, and was at a slant. "That'll do." Sonic said, and zipped up the boulder and jumped off the end, using the boulder like a ramp.

Suddenly airborne, he sailed upward for a few feet, then landed on both feet on one of the back portion of the fleeing Eggmobile. Hearing the thump this created, Eggman turned and jumped when he saw Sonic standing there. Sonic couldn't help but grin. Repetitious or not, it _was_ always fun to get the jump on Eggman like this.

"How'd you get there?" Eggman asked dumbly.

Sonic shrugged. "Jumped." he answered simply, and quickly snatched the Chaos Emerald from Eggman's hand before Eggman recovered from his shock. "Bye!"

Then he jumped, landing back on solid ground and started running again, this time in the other direction. As predicted, Eggman wasn't going to give up so easily, and quickly turned the Eggmobile to give chase to his blue and speedy nemesis.

"You give that back!" Eggman exclaimed angrily.

"Gotta catch me first!" Sonic replied tauntingly.

Without warning, he came to an abrupt halt and suddenly changed directions, going under the Eggmobile as it zoomed by overhead. Eggman hurried to compensate, in order to have it happen again as Sonic yet again pulled off the same maneuver.

"You stop that, now!" Eggman yelled angrily, the Eggmobile starting to travel in a constant circle now as Sonic zipped back and forth under it.

Then, without warning, Sonic started forward again, leaving Eggman in his dust, who failed to notice Sonic had left for a moment. By the time he did, Sonic was already a good distance away.

"Ha!" Sonic said as he ran, nimbly tossing the Chaos Emerald into the air and catching it again. "Fooled dumb ol' Eggman. Again."

He sped on for a few moments, then suddenly came to a skidding halt and turned around as the Eggmobile suddenly came crashing down through the forest canopy to hover above the ground, cutting off Sonic's path. The evil scientist hooted with laughter as he gave chase once again.

"Who's the fool now, hedgehog?" he asked victoriously, as he flipped a switch on his control panel.

Two machine gun barrels poked out of the front of the Eggmobile and opened fire upon Sonic. Thanks to his super speed, Sonic was able to dodge the bullets, but saw that a change was in order. Picking up speed, he leapt into the air, jumped off of one tree, then another, constantly gaining altitude. Then he landed on the nose of the Eggmobile and jumped again, somersaulting over the stunned doctor and landing on the ground behind the Eggmobile.

He ran forward again for a little ways, then suddenly veered off of the narrow path he had been running upon and into the thicker parts of the surrounding woods, weaving in and around the trees, making it much harder for Eggman to follow. Eggman tried anyway, rising up above the canopy of trees in the Eggmobile, and tailing after Sonic.

Theoretically, seeing that Sonic had the Chaos Emerald, he could try doing Chaos Control like Shadow would, and simply warp out of harm's way, and away from Eggman. Granted, he didn't do it often, but he knew he could.

But where was the fun in that?

Grinning, Sonic raced faster, enjoying this game of "chase the hedgehog" Eggman was apparently so keen to do. Eggman was feeling the opposite by this point however, and was getting slightly desperate. Sporadically firing his machine guns whenever he thought he had a clear shot at Sonic (and usually didn't) Eggman was trying to get his Eggmobile to squeeze under the canopy of tree branches that cut him off from Sonic and try to get back the Chaos Emerald.

But Sonic knew there was no way the bulky Eggmobile could fit here. So long as he stayed in the woods, he was pretty much safe from Eggman. Immediately after he thought this, the woods abruptly stopped, and Sonic was suddenly running through the outskirts of a city; he could see the many lights the skyscrapers cast from here.

"Spoke too soon." Sonic thought, and quickly turned to head into the thicker parts of the city, where there was more shelter. He looked around, figuring out where he was.

"Station Square." Sonic murmured, seeing the surprised people walking on the busy sidewalks and driving in passing vehicles as he sped past them all. "Guess I _was _pretty close to here, wasn't I?"

At that moment, a stream of bullets from the Eggmobile's machine guns struck the pavement near Sonic's feet. Sonic turned and saw that Eggman was still chasing him.

"Doesn't know when to quit, does he?" Sonic muttered, and turned at the next corner.

Deeper within Station Square's city limits, the two came closer to the towering skyscrapers of the city. This worked in Sonic's advantage, because this forced Eggman to have to weave in and around the towering buildings unless he went up to a higher altitude, which was the very last thing the evil scientist was going to do with his prey being on the ground.

Yet Sonic still couldn't seem to shake Eggman, not at these speeds, anyway. He could go faster, hit the speed of sound, which he was already borderlining by his estimates. But going that fast required at lot of concentration, concentration that was being somewhat broken by the fact he was being chased by Eggman. So he was hesitant to do that here, within city limits, where he ran the risk of running into something.

More machine gun struck the pavement near Sonic, closer this time, causing the hedgehog to veer into the opposite lane of car traffic and forced him to jump over a car that was heading towards him. "Aw, doesn't look like I'm going to have a choice." Sonic grudgingly admitted, and sped up even more.

Soon there after, an echoing bang rang out as Sonic broke the sound barrier and became nothing more than a blue blur to those watching. Sonic panted as he wove his way through the crowded and seemingly narrow city streets, trying to come up with another plan. Eggman didn't help matters any, by shooting at and destroying a nearby parked car. It exploded under the fire Eggman shot at it, and Sonic did a quick u-turn to avoid the fiery inferno, going back the way he had came.

Eggman used this chance to drop the Eggmobile down to cut off Sonic's path. The hedgehog came screeching to a halt to avoid running into the Eggmobile.

Eggman fingered the trigger for his craft's machine guns menacingly. "Hand over the Chaos Emerald, now!" he ordered. "Or I'll turn you into more of a pincushion than you are now!"

"All right." Sonic said, feigning defeat. "You want it? Then here. Catch!"

And with that, he hurled the Chaos Emerald over Eggman's head.

"No!" Eggman exclaimed, and tried to grab the glowing crystal as it whizzed past, and missed completely.

While Eggman was distracted, Sonic zipped forward again, going around the hovering Eggmobile, and went to catch the still flying emerald like he would a football.

Eggman shook his fist angrily. "Oh, no you don't!" he exclaimed, and pushed another button on the Eggmobile's control panel.

It fired a net at Sonic. Sonic saw it out of the corner of his eye, and moved to avoid it, but reacted too late. The net slammed into his feet, entangling them, and sent him rolling off the road and into a crowded sidewalk, making a few pedestrians yelp in surprise. Eggman laughed victoriously, and moved the Eggmobile past the emerald as it hit the ground unharmed a few feet away, leaning over to scoop it up.

"So long hedgehog!" Eggman said happily, waving at Sonic has he hurried to free himself from the ensnaring net.

"Argh..." Sonic yelled, frustrated, finally pulling the net off of him and getting back to his feet. "Excuse me!" he yelled as he pushed past the group of pedestrians that had gathered, and raced after the fleeing Eggmobile once again.

Quickly regaining the speed he had lost, he jumped and tried to latch onto the fleeing Eggmobile, but it had already risen high enough that it was beyond his reach. Eggman simply laughed at this seemingly feeble attempt, and ignored Sonic. Not one to be beaten, though, Sonic quickly gathered more speed and zipped up the side of a nearby skyscraper. Estimating to be at the same height as the Eggmobile, Sonic pushed off of the building, and again tried to grab the Eggmobile, nearly grabbing onto one of it's fins.

But Eggman, almost tauntingly, tilted the Eggmobile and moved the fin out of Sonic's reach, causing Sonic to tumble downward towards the ground.

"Whoops!" Eggman said tauntingly. "Missed me!"

Sonic stopped his fall by grabbing a streetlight. Flipping over it once, he landed safely on the ground, and pursued Eggman still. But by this point, the Eggmobile had already risen far out reach, flying high over the tops of all the nearby skyscrapers, and going higher still. Out of Sonic's hearing range, Eggman's only indication of gloating over his victory was waving the stolen emerald gleefully at Sonic as the hedgehog ground to a halt to watch.

The Eggmobile finally stopped rising, and hovered in the air for a moment. Then it finally pivoted to face west, and headed off in that direction. Sonic took note of this, knowing that this would be the direction he would need to go in, but stomped his foot angrily at the fact that Eggman had slipped out of his grasp.

"Darn it." Sonic muttered. "I hate it when this happens."

Sighing, he knew that he was going need help to go on from this point. Fortunately, he knew right where to find it. Turning around, he raced off for Tail's workshop, knowing that the two-tailed fox would have _exactly _what Sonic would need...


	2. Game Plan

When writing this chapter, it started out in a slightly different direction, but the furhter I went, the more it shifted to the direction it goes now. It probably shows, so that's why. Tails and Knuckles are introduced. Enjoy!

C h a p t e r O n e

G a m e P l a n

"Sonic, going to super sonic speeds while pacing in my workshop probably wouldn't be a good idea."

Sonic quickly skidded to a halt, and resumed pacing at normal speeds. "Sorry Tails." he apologized. "It's just that...well...Eggman's got a Chaos Emerald!"

"I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have decided to do an overhaul on the Tornado today after all..." Tails responded from where he was working under the partly dismantled biplane.

"No, it's okay, Tails, you couldn't have known this would've happened." Sonic replied, his pacing gradually gaining speed again. "I mean, Eggman doesn't exactly announce his personal agenda for the world to hear and everything..."

"Still, I can see why your so anxious." Tails persisted, quickly trying to reassemble the plane as quickly as possible. "Eggman having _any _Chaos Emeralds is a _very _bad thing. He can do lots with just the one emerald."

"Not only that, but him getting one emerald is a precursor to trouble." Sonic said, his pacing still gaining speed. "I mean, has anything _good _ever happened when he messes with the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Not once." Tails replied.

"Exactly." Sonic replied, his pacing becoming so fast he was nothing more than a blue blur.

Tails noticed. "Sonic." he said flatly.

"Sorry." Sonic said, realizing what he was doing and quickly stopped. And to prevent himself from doing it again, he found a nearby chair and sat in it.

Tails struggled to reinsert a piece into the Tornado's engine, and grew frustrated when he could get it to fit. Banging the plane's metal hull loudly, he pulled himself out from under the plane.

"Look, Sonic, I'm just not going to get this done anytime soon." he admitted to his friend. "Is it possible that you can get back the emerald yourself, on foot?"

"Believe me, I'm _very _tempted." Sonic stated. "And I mean very, _very_, tempted."

"But it would be unwise, wouldn't it?" Tails asked, getting where Sonic was going with this.

"Have you seen some of the new technology ol' egghead has been cranking out lately?" Sonic asked. "Assuming I can even _find _Eggman's current hideout, it will _not_ be easy getting in there. Even _I _will admit that I would feel a whole lot safer with _somebody _there to watch my back."

"Okay, I understand that." Tails said. "Well, the Tornado isn't the only plane we've got around here. I've got a test plane out in back that I've used to test parts for the Tornado. It's not much, but it currently has a booster engine in it, and it _is _pretty maneuverable..."

"It's no Tornado, though." Sonic pointed out.

"I know, but what other options do we have?" Tails asked.

Sonic sighed. "I don't know." he admitted.

Tails thought for a moment. "Maybe we could...well..." he trailed off for a moment, then shook his head. "Forget it, bad idea."

"What was it?" Sonic asked.

"Don't worry about it, it really is a bad idea." Tails said.

"Tell me anyway." Sonic stated

"Well, okay." Tail said hesitantly. "But you won't like it."

"Just tell me." Sonic said.

"Okay, I was just thinking that maybe we could go ahead and wait to go after Eggman long enough for me to finish getting the Tornado reassembled." Tails said. "I mean, it is just _one _emerald. It's not like Eggman is going to blow up the planet or anything like that."

Sonic stared at Tails for a long moment. "You were right Tails." he said. "That _is _a really bad idea."

"Exactly why I didn't want to say anything." Tails said. "But we gotta choose a plan of action sometime."

"Well, there's only one in my mind that has will work best." Sonic admitted, turning for the door. "I'll go and track down Eggman's hideout. The moment I do, I'll come and tell you where it is, then head back and keep an eye on things and make sure Eggman doesn't try anything funny. Once you get the Tornado up and running again Tails, you rush right over, and then attack and get that Chaos Emerald back."

"Works for me." Tails said, picking up a tool and heading over to the Tornado to start working on it again. "I'll work as quickly as possible."

"And _I'll _search as quickly as possible." Sonic said with a grin, opening the door, and zoomed out it and into the surrounding wilderness.

* * *

The first thing Sonic did was backtrack to Station Square. It was still dark out, but the metropolitan seaside city was still very busy. The citizens within the city shouted in surprise and glee when they saw Sonic speed past; a couple cheered their hero on. But today Sonic ignored them. He was on a mission, no time for this fame stuff.

Arriving at the spot he and Eggman last fought each other, Sonic remembered which direction the mad scientist had left, and turned to go west. Speeding along, he was on the lookout for anything Eggmanish. For a long while, all he found was trees, trees, and more trees. That, and dirt and rocks, and the occasional sign of civilization, but he avoided the civilized spots. He knew Eggman would be hiding somewhere concealed.

Finally, Sonic found a dirt path cut through the forest. Screeching to a halt, he looked the path up and down, not recalling ever being on this path here at all. Deciding this was worth investigating, he turned and ran up the road, wondering where it connected to. But it connected nowhere, in fact it was a dead end.

All it did was suddenly widening in a large, dirt-filled, clearing. But in the middle of this clearing was a cement landing pad and four towering lights, glowing brightly in the darkness. And guarding it was four robots. Sonic quickly ducked back into the trees, hiding out of sight, and surveyed the clearing again. He grinned, seeing he was on the right track.

Seeing no need to attack the robots guarding the landing pad and inadvertently alert Eggman that he was here, Sonic headed back the way he came, and this time headed down the path, seeing where it led in _this _direction. And it led exactly where he thought it would. Down a small hill in another large clearing, and littered with evidence of Eggman's presence, was a large, dome-like, structure. Clearly the doctor's current hideout.

Sonic watched it for a moment, noting a little tower place on the top of the dome, and presumed this was where Eggman most likely would be. But the question now was how did one enter the building? As if to answer his question, a patrol of robots approached the building and entered through a door just out of Sonic's line of sight. Already getting an idea of what he was going to do to get back the Chaos Emerald, he moved down the sloping ground to get a better look at the door.

A twig snapped behind him, and before Sonic could turn and see what was responsible, he was tackled from behind, and pushed into the dirt. Quickly flipped over, Sonic braced himself as a fist came surging towards his face. At the last possible moment, it stopped, just inches away from Sonic's nose.

"Sonic!" the attacker exclaimed, and quickly got off of Sonic.

Slightly shaken, but otherwise unharmed, Sonic picked himself up and studied his attacker, recognizing him instantly.

"Knuckles!" Sonic exclaimed, dusting off his spines. "I know we haven't always gotten along, but, really..."

"I thought you were one of Eggman's robots, all right?" The red echidna exclaimed, clearly embarrassed over his mistake, but not willing to admit it.

Sonic made an exaggerated inspection of himself. "Really?" he asked sarcastically. "I didn't think I looked a thing like _any _of Eggman's robots. Even Metal Sonic doesn't look _that_ much like me."

"Oh shush." Knuckles grumbled, then changed the subject. "I suppose _you're _here for the Chaos Emerald, too?"

"Long story short, yes." Sonic replied. "Guess word travels fast, though, if you're here."

"It does, but there's another reason." Knuckles replied. "After the last fiasco with Eggman and the Chaos Emeralds, I've been making it a habit of keeping tabs on all seven of the emeralds. Earlier tonight, I found that one had been stolen, and replaced by this _ridiculous _fake." he tossed Sonic an obviously fake and imperfect Chaos Emerald look-alike. "I figured only Eggman would try something so stupid to keep someone off his tail, so I set out with the plan of getting that emerald back. A little later, I heard you and Eggman duke it out in Station Square over the same emerald." Knuckles laughed. "Heh, figures you couldn't handle it."

Annoyed, Sonic chucked the fake emerald back at Knuckles. "I got closer to getting it back than you have, though." he pointed out. "So far, all _you _have to show for it is that fake emerald!"

"At least I _have _an emerald of some sort!" Knuckles retorted, starting for Eggman's hideout. "But I suppose it doesn't matter now, especially when I get the Chaos Emerald back in just a moment."

"Not if I get to it first!" Sonic said, cutting off Knuckles path. "I can take on Eggman any day!"

"Then why haven't you done so yet?" Knuckles asked slyly.

"Well...I was waiting for Tails to get here in the Tornado, but since _you're _here..." Sonic began.

"Oh sure, wait until someone comes to _help_ you before you do anything!" Knuckles said, stepping around Sonic and continuing onward. "Typical, typical, typical."

"Actually, I was _going _to say that since you're here, I have no choice but beat you to the emerald." Sonic said folding his arms with a half-grin.

Knuckles stopped and looked back at Sonic for a moment.

"Last one to the emerald takes on the rotten Eggman?" Sonic challenged, gearing up to run.

"You're on." Knuckles said.

And with that, they raced forward, launching themselves at the nearest robots as they worked their way towards Eggman's hideout.

* * *

Inside, Eggman was busy working in a laboratory, blissfully unaware that there was a battle going on his front porch. Keeping one eye on the readouts a computer screen was displaying, the evil scientist fiddled with the controls until the readouts matched his desired specifications.

Nearby, a robot was putting the final touches on a podium-like device. He turned to Eggman obediently. "Preparations completed as requested, Dr. Robotnik." it reported monotonously.

"Good, now go." Eggman ordered the robot, approaching the podium device. "I will be the sole witness of this experiment."

The robot nodded, and left the room as requested, leaving the door open as it did so. Eggman ignored this fact, more interested in what he was about to do. Pulling the stolen Chaos Emerald from his pocket, he held it aloft before him.

"You may be powerful," he said to the emerald, "But some of your most _interesting _abilities is cut off from me." Gently, he lowered the green emerald into a slot on top of the machine. "But let's see if I can't change that."

Seeing that the emerald was secure, he walked around the machine to it's control panel, and began typing in commands. A little display on the panel began to show that the machine was drawing energy from the emerald. It did this until it had a small supply of it, then, while continuing to draw more power, it forced the energy it had gathered back into the emerald.

The emerald rattled from the strain, it's glow flickering. Then, without warning, it's glow suddenly flared suddenly, forcing Eggman to look away. The glow rapidly decreased to more tolerable levels, but was still glowing far brighter than usual.

"Yes!" Eggman exclaimed to himself. "I did it! By forcing the emerald into an artificially induced overload, have made it become even more powerful than before! It is now a _Super _Emerald!" He laughed manically for a moment. "Now!" he continued, calming down, "If my tests are correct, this Super Emerald is now unstable enough that anyone may use it's special abilities, such as myself. This includes Chaos Control." he rubbed his hands in anticipation. "I think I'll try it, and find out."

Carefully, he lifted the emerald out of the machine and gripped it delicately in his hand. He stared at it's bright aura of light for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "Chaos...CONTROL!" he exclaimed.

The emerald started to glow brighter. And brighter, until it engulfed the room in it's light, washing out everything else in it's brilliant light. Squeezing his eyes shut, Eggman realized that something had gone wrong, that the emerald wasn't working as he had expected. But by this point it was too late.

When the light subsided again, the emerald clattered to the floor, it's Super Emerald charge lost in the attempted Chaos Control. Eggman himself was gone. In his stead was someone else, someone who did not belong at all...


	3. Illusions

C h a p t e r T w o

I l l u s i o n s

The robots guarding Eggman's hideout turned as the two intruders approached, and instantly went on the defensive.

"Intruder alert!" the first, and apparent leader of the group announced in his robotic voice. "Place the facility on alert level one and inform Dr. Robotnik. Intruders are identified as Knuckles the Echidna and Sonic the Hedgehog. Begin appropriate counterattack beginning with..."

But that was as far as the robot got before Sonic plowed into him with a spin-dash attack, leaving the robot disabled.

"Serves you right for rambling." Sonic said, leaping into the air as two other robots dove for him.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was punching robots left and right as the machines tried to swarm him. This proved to be a mistake for the robots, because when Knuckles punched one robot aside, it took three or four others down with it, because they were so tightly packed together.

"You'd think they'd learn." Knuckles muttered, continuing to plow his way through the swarms of robots.

Sonic zipped around, luring the unintelligent robots to slam into things in their haste to attack and capture the blue hedgehog. Mostly they ran into themselves, but occasionally they slammed into the building they were supposed to be protecting, dealing damage to the structure. The robots soon realized this tactic wasn't working and switched to another in which they attempted to gang up on Sonic.

Naturally, Sonic proved to be too fast for this, but they chased him anyway. Pretty soon Sonic was speeding around and around the facility in a circle, with a long line of robots chasing after him.

"Hey Knuckles!" he yelled as he sped past the echidna as he drove the spikes on his knuckles into the hull of a robot. "Care to lend a hand?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes, but quickly stopped assaulting the group of robots he was dealing with and quickly punched the first robot in the long line of robots chasing Sonic. It tipped over and crashed into the next robot and quickly turned into a domino effect. Sonic returned from his lap around the facility in time for the last robot topple over.

"I guess I should say thanks!" Sonic said as he sped past Knuckles again to pursue a new target.

"That'll be the day." Knuckles muttered, and kicked at the shin of one robot that had managed to get a hit in on him.

The robots switched tactics again and now were trying to attack Sonic from multiple angles in quick succession. Again, this tactic didn't work on the speedy hedgehog, who merely wove around them like they were standing still. As a result, the robots all slammed into each other instead of their target.

Seeing that most of the outside guards had been dealt with, Sonic zipped up to the hideout's entrance. Stopping before it, he looked the heavy metal door up and down, and calmly pressed the open control. It buzzed, and did not accept the command. Sonic tried a few more times, but the door did not open.

"Knuckles, kinda need a door open here!" Sonic called.

"Why should I open the door for you?" Knuckles called back, dealing a blow to one robot and grabbing another by the leg.

"You can't go get the emerald either if you can't open the door." Sonic pointed out, leaning casually against the frame of the door, rubbing his nails on his fur and inspecting him.

"Oh, fine!" Knuckles exclaimed, and took the robot he had by it's leg, swung it around twice, and then threw it at the door.

The door crumpled instantly when the robot struck it, clearing the entrance completely.

"There, I opened the door." Knuckles grumbled, stomping past Sonic to enter the hideout.

"I guess that works." Sonic replied, and followed.

They were inside for only a moment before they raced back out again, a whole army of robots hot on their heels. To avoid getting into a another fight with them, Knuckles quickly picked up the many disabled robots lying around outside and stacked them up in front of the entrance, blocking the robots path.

"Sheesh, got enough robots crammed in there, Eggman?" Knuckles said aloud, more to himself than anything.

"Guess we can't go that way." Sonic remarked with a shrug, working on coming up with a new plan.

"There's more than one way to that emerald." Knuckles said, and leapt at the nearest wall.

Driving the spikes on his knuckles into the smooth surface, he started to climb. Grunting from the exertion, he slowly worked his way upwards. Sonic watched for a moment, yawning, then raced forward. Knuckles stopped his climbing as he heard the pitter-patter of Sonic's feet and turned to see the hedgehog racing up the wall, backwards, with his arms folded, looking like this was easy. He slowed just long enough to give Knuckles a smirk before speeding on up the curving slope of the dome-shaped building.

"Cheeky little..." Knuckles growled, and continued climbing.

Sonic reached the top of the dome quickly. Now the only thing keeping him from the Chaos Emerald was the tower that poked up from the top of the dome portion of the building. Confident that Eggman and the Chaos Emerald would be at the top of the tower, Sonic sped forward, and plowed into a window that sat at the bottom level of the tower.

Now finding himself at the bottom of a spiral staircase, he sped up it. Naturally, there were robots on the staircase, but there was windows on every level of the staircase. All Sonic had to do was squeeze to one side of each robot had give it a shove, and it would pop out the window with a shatter, and tumble down to the ground.

It wasn't long before Sonic reached the tower's topmost level, ready to get back a Chaos Emerald.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the laboratory, the newcomer to the lab slowly regained consciousness. Opening his eyes blearily, he looked around and saw that he was in an unfamiliar location. A laboratory of some sort, and a fairly impressive one at that. Seemed like something he would come up with.

Still, this didn't seem to be home. Something wasn't right about any of this at all. Sitting up, he quickly racked his brain and attempted to recall what he remembered happening last, attempting to find an explanation. But his memory of the incident was a little foggy. All he remembered was walking along, and then seeing a large white light engulf him. The next thing he remembered was waking up here.

Scratching his head in thought, he looked around the laboratory again. Finally, his eyes fell upon the Chaos Emerald, lying almost innocently on the floor. The newcomer picked it up and examined it.

"A Chaos Emerald?" he asked, genuinely surprised to see it here. "But, you should be safely kept with the other six at..." he trailed off, shaking his head as he attempted to sort things out and failing. "This doesn't make any sense." he admitted, and stood up, once more surveying the room. "But maybe someone here knows."

And just then he heard the familiar pitter-patter of feet coming his way...

* * *

Sonic reached the still-open doorway leading into the laboratory, and came to a halt within it, looking into the room. Inside was only one person. Eggman.

Or who, at first glance, looked like Eggman.

This person had all the usual traits of Eggman; the portly body, the bald head, the overgrown and fuzzy red moustache, and the usual blank look Eggman wore whenever Sonic popped up unexpectedly. But the traits ended there. _This _Eggman's moustache was shorter, and slightly better trimmed. The rest of his face had the stubble of a beard growing in, indicating he hadn't shaved in awhile.

And his attire simply did not say "evil scientist." Instead of the usual, tacky, outfit Sonic saw Eggman wear most of the time, was a much more luxurious and fancy, colored a deep royal blue. The fabric looked to be velvet, and this Eggman wore a cape, a fairly unusual thing for Eggman to wear. There was no sign in his attire that reflected Eggman's intellect, either, but his face brightened when he saw Sonic, and Sonic could see that the wheels _were _turning in this Eggman's mind, as always.

"Sonic!" he exclaimed with a smile.

"Eggman." Sonic greeted, giving Eggman a comical and exaggerated salute.

"Thank goodness you're here!" Eggman said, unexpectedly setting down the Chaos Emerald and rushing towards Sonic, arms outstretched, as if he intended to give Sonic a hug.

Totally shocked now, Sonic yelped and quickly moved aside, avoiding Eggman. "_Thank goodness_?" he repeated. "Just what are you up to?"

"I'm trying to figure out just what in the world happened!" the odd Eggman explained. "I suppose _you _know, don't you?"

"I personally have no idea what you're talking about." Sonic said, not liking the direction this was going.

"Of course you do!" Eggman roared suddenly. "You know everything, that's why you're my top captain!"

"Say _what _now?" Sonic exclaimed. "Top captain? Eggman, you of all people should know that I'd never join your side. Have you _lost _it?"

The odd Eggman froze and seemed to be seriously contemplating that suggestion. "I don't know." he finally admitted. "I sure _hope _not."

"Well, while you figure it out..." Sonic said, using this chance to race around the podium device and grab the Chaos Emerald sitting on top of it. "I'll just take this back and go!" he raced for the door.

"Take it back?" the unusual Eggman repeated, now completely perplexed. "But..."

It was too late. Sonic was already out of the room and halfway down the tower again. Exiting out the way he came, he found Knuckles was just now reaching the top of the dome, out of breath due to his long climb.

"Got the emerald, let's go!" Sonic said, speeding past.

"But what about Eggman?" Knuckles asked, puzzled and frustrated at the same time.

"Forget Eggman!" Sonic shouted, reaching the bottom of the dome and racing into the surrounding woods. "I'll explain later, now let's go!"

"Sonic, wait!" Knuckles yelled, and skidded back down the dome he had just climbed up and chased after the speedy hedgehog, calling for Sonic to stop.

But Sonic didn't stop until he reached Tails's workshop several minutes later.

"Look what I got!" Sonic exclaimed, racing in the door and coming to a stop to lean against a worktable.

Tails turned from where he was working on the Tornado. His eyes widened when he saw the glowing emerald Sonic was idly tossing in the air.

"The Chaos Emerald!" Tails exclaimed, setting down his tools and stepping over to get a better look. "You got it?"

Sonic nodded his head.

"But what about all that stuff you said about it being too dangerous without help?" Tails asked, taking the emerald and examining it.

"Well, Knuckles showed up." Sonic explained. "He was looking for the Chaos Emerald too. So he challenged me to see who could get it first, and..."

"I did _not!_" Knuckles said, stepping into the workshop, wheezing from trying to keep up with Sonic. "_You _challenged _me_!"

"And I beat ya, didn't I?" Sonic asked, looking prideful.

Knuckles gave Sonic a glare, but dropped the subject. "Alright, I've finally caught up with you." he said instead. "Now start explaining!"

"Explaining what?" Tails asked.

"Well, it was the weirdest thing, actually." Sonic admitted. "When I arrived in the laboratory Eggman was in with the Chaos Emerald, he was acting...well...weird!"

"Care to be more specific?" Knuckles asked, giving Sonic another glare.

"Well, he was wearing these odd clothes, talking about stuff that have never happened, seemed to think I was his friend..." Sonic trailed off and shook his head.

"His _friend_?" Tails repeated, wide-eyed.

"Whatever gave him _that _idea?" Knuckles asked. "You haven't turned to _Eggman's _side, have you?"

"Of course not, you knucklehead!" Sonic exclaimed, annoyed Knuckles would even consider that.

"The name is _Knuckles_!" Knuckles replied angrily, grabbing Sonic by the shoulders in his rage.

"Hey, hey!" Tails said, quickly intervening. "Let's not get into a fight just because Eggman is acting weird! Well, weirder than usual anyway."

Knuckles released Sonic with a huff. "Alright, fine." he said. "But why would Eggman even _suggest _something like that?"

"I think he's lost it." Sonic replied honestly. "I mean, I always knew he was a little loony, but this is a new low, even for him!"

"But I don't get it!" Tails said. "He seemed fine earlier, when he stole the emerald in the first place!"

"At least as 'fine' as Eggman ever gets." Knuckles muttered.

"But Tails has a point." Sonic admitted, thinking back to the battle he and Eggman had at Station Square. "Eggman _did _seem like his normal self just hours ago! Why the sudden change?"

Knuckles considered the issue for a moment. "Maybe there's more to this than meets the eye..." he said.

A beeping rang out, and Tails walked off to a nearby computer. "Incoming message, you guys!" he said, and tapped in the command to open the message.

A live video link popped up on the computer's screen, revealing a person. He looked at Tails for a moment before speaking in a business-like manner. "Hello Mr. Prower." he greeted. "Is Sonic there? We weren't able to contact him at his home."

Tails eyes widened excitedly. "Mr. President!" he exclaimed, surprised, then turned to Knuckles and Sonic and said unnecessarily, "It's the president!"

"Hey, Mr. President!" Sonic said, coming to the computer. "Yeah, I'm here. What's up?"

"Sonic, I need your help." the president of the United Federation said. "Since you are the one who has fought with Dr. Eggman the most..."

Sonic sighed. "_Now _what is Eggman up to?" he asked, cutting to the chase.

The president hesitated. "We're not sure." he admitted. "His methods are...shall we say...unclear."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Knuckles asked, approaching the computer as well.

"See for yourself." the president said.

The screen suddenly changed to show a view outside the president's office, outside the entire building, in fact. And standing there at the building's front door, pounding away angrily at it, was an all too familiar figure.

"It's Eggman!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"More importantly, the weird-acting Eggman I saw back in that laboratory!" Sonic added.

"Let me in!" the unusual Eggman on the screen exclaimed. "This is _my _house! I live here! Why is everything so different? What's this 'United Federation' everyone's talking about? Where's Sonic? I demand to speak with my captain!"

The president came back on the screen. "I presume that you see my problem now." he stated bluntly.

"Don't I ever!" Sonic exclaimed. "It's not like Eggman to do something so obviously _stupid_!"

"We're talking him into custody now." the president continued. "But I want to know why he's acting like this, and whether or not it's part of some new scheme of his."

"This is where I come in, isn't it?" Sonic asked.

"You, and all of your friends and allies who are willing to come in." the president said. "I'm calling in everyone who has had dealings with Eggman. I want to get to the bottom of this was quickly as possible."

"And two heads are better than one." Knuckles pointed out.

"Or three or four." Tails said, thinking about how many the president was indicating he was bringing in.

"We'll be right there." Sonic told the president. "In the meantime, best be on your guard, sir. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't some kind of trap Eggman's come up with."

"Understood." the president said, nodding. "We'll be waiting for your arrival, then."


	4. A Quaint Reunion

C h a p t e r T h r e e

A Q u a i n t R e u n i o n

"Maybe one of his wacky inventions did this to him." one scientist theorized.

"That's always a possibility." another replied. "But I don't see how it would fit in with his goal of total global domination."

"I do." the first replied. "Maybe it's a device designed to rewrite memories. If so, then one could modify the memories of others to suit his needs."

"I get it." the second said, catching on. "If Eggman had such a device, he would use it to rewrite the memories of all who opposed him so that they would submit to his rule willingly. If he does, then maybe what happened is that it backfired on him."

"Right!" the first scientist said, grinning. It quickly faded. "But, then he'd have to have a way to hit us all at once with that device. He couldn't afford to hit his enemies one at a time; we'd catch on too quickly."

"I'd worry more about finding proof of this so-called device first, before we worry about the particulars." the second scientist pointed out.

"Good point." the first replied.

And they went back to work, sitting at the computers placed on the table before them. Sitting above the table was a bulletproof one-way window, that looked into a bland, mostly unfurnished, cell. In it was Eggman, still oddly dressed and still acting oddly. He paced his cell, agitated, and mumbling under his breath as he went. He seemed to be aware he was being watched by the two scientists, even though he couldn't see them, and kept shooting dirty glances at the one-way window.

The scientists ignored the looks, more focused on trying to figure out why this Eggman was acting so odd, and whether or not he was Eggman. They worked silently, until the door suddenly banged open, and something zipped up to stand behind the two seated scientists.

"Hi!" he said.

The first scientist jumped, startled, and turned to see Sonic standing behind her, looking slightly impatient. "Oh!" she said. "Um, hello!"

The other scientist turned to look at Sonic. His face brightened when he saw the blue hedgehog. "Hi!" he greeted joyfully. "You must be Sonic! We were told you'd be coming. I just didn't expect you to come so quick..."

He trailed off as he realized to whom he was saying this to, and gulped nervously. "Um..." he said, quickly looking for a subject change. "Let me introduce ourselves!" he pointed to his cohort. "This is Dr. Watterson." he said, then pointed at himself. "And I'm Dr. Bill."

"Dr. Bill?" Sonic repeated skeptically. "What kind of name is that?"

"Then what kind of name is Sonic?" Watterson asked slyly.

Sonic opened his mouth to reply, but upon finding he was unable to come up with a good answer, closed it again, and scowled at Watterson instead.

"I meant nothing by it." Watterson quickly defended herself. "Just proving a point."

"Yeah, I get it." Sonic mumbled, and looked past the two scientists at Eggman. "I suppose you're here to try and figure out what Eggman's up to as well."

"Yeah, we were assigned to work on it until help arrived." Dr. Bill replied. He stared hopelessly at his computer screen. "So far we've got nothing to show for it. Eggman has us stumped."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Sonic agreed. "He can be pretty tricky. I know from experience."

"Of course you would." Bill said looking at Sonic, a little annoyed now. "And what can you do to help?"

"Provide insight, I guess." Sonic replied, tapping his foot as if he was anxious to be moving rather than standing still. "I'm no good at that sciencey stuff."

"Well, that's all we do around here." Watterson pointed out.

"Top-secret sciencey stuff, I would imagine." Sonic said, looking around the underground facility they were in. "Otherwise this place would be easier to get to. Took me a full _five seconds_ to get down here."

"An eternity, I'm sure." Bill said sarcastically, anxious to get back to work, but finding that Sonic was distracting. "Look, didn't you bring help? Someone who could help with this "sciencey stuff", as you put it?"

"Sonic!" a voice called from the hallway, and the sound of footsteps quickly following.

"That answer your question?" Sonic asked, as Tail and Knuckles finally caught up with the speedy hedgehog, followed by Mrs. Black, who was the president's current secretary.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, seeing Sonic. "What were you doing, running off like that? This is a top-secret facility!"

Sonic shrugged. "You were all too slow." he replied simply. "Don't worry, I didn't look at anything I wasn't supposed to. Well, maybe I _did _peek at that motion accelerator you've got in the other room, but other than that..."

"Never mind." Black said, and turned to Bill and Watterson. "These three are here to provide any input you need about Eggman, at the president's request." she told them. "Listen to what they say, and treat them with respect. They _are _guests." she gave Sonic another disapproving glance. "But they _won't _be if they can't stay out of stuff they aren't supposed to."

"It was just a peak!" Sonic said in his defense. "A speedy guy like me would be interested in something like a motion accelerator!"

But Black wasn't listening anymore, pressing a concealed earpiece in her ear as something was broadcasted through it. Without saying another word, she left.

"What a grump." Knuckles remarked, folding his arms. "With the exception of you Sonic, she wouldn't let us out of her sight. I don't think she trusts us."

"This _is_ a top-secret facility, though." Bill pointed out. "She's under orders to make sure you guys stay out of the stuff you're not supposed to know about."

"Like that motion accelerator, right?" Sonic asked, and without waiting for an answer, turned to Tails. "You should've seen it buddy. That thing probably had enough power to send me into Super Sonic speeds _without _any Chaos Emeralds! Man, if I had one of those things..."

"Getting back to the matter at hand..." Watterson interrupted, turning to look at the agitated Eggman. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Keep him there." Knuckles said decisively. "No matter what's wrong with him, it's better to keep Eggman locked up like this, where he can stay out of trouble."

"Okay, but what if he has some device somewhere sitting on autopilot that could destroy the world, and we don't know about it?" Bill asked.

Knuckles confident expression faded.

"Gotta think these things through, Knuckles." Sonic quipped, jabbing his friend in the ribs.

"What data have you collected so far?" Tails asked, approaching the scientists.

"Just Eggman's vitals, which seem to be normal." Watterson replied. "We were in the process of using the sensors in the cell to gather more, but it's a slow process, and..."

"Here, can I try?" Tails asked, approaching Watterson's computer. When Watterson didn't vacate the seat, Tails hopped into her lap so he could reach the computer, since the table it sat upon was built with humans in mind, and not foxes. "You just need to double the processing speed." Tails announced, typing away at the computer's keyboard furiously. "I can do better than that, and triple it by reformatting the hard drive by using a data compressor. It should boost the memory from three gigabytes to a full six."

"But that's impossible!" Bill objected, knowing that these computers weren't built to store so much data.

"Not for Tails." Sonic remarked. "You're looking at an eight-year-old genius here."

"Wow." Watterson remarked, amazed at this little tidbit of information, and at the speed Tails was doing what he said he would.

Five minutes later, he was done. "Okay, that should do it." Tails announced. "Try it now."

Bill nodded and activated the sensor. It started to discreetly scan Eggman at a much faster rate than before. "According to this, the scan will be complete in another five minutes!" Bill said, amazed. He looked at Tails admiringly. "Teach me how you did that!" he requested.

"Later." Black announced, suddenly returning. "First finish the task at hand. It should go quickly now that you have more help."

"More help?" Knuckles said, turning to look at the doorway. "Who else have you brought?"

He stared at who stood in the doorway beside Black.

"Don't answer that." Knuckles said, turning his back on Black. "Maybe I can just ignore her if I don't know she's there."

"Why Knuckles, you wound me." Rouge the Bat remarked as she idly strolled into the room. "Can't we just make up and be friends again, like before?"

"We never _were _friends." Knuckles replied bluntly, trying his best to ignore Rouge, but she was trying her hardest to make this goal impossible. Finally, Knuckles broke down and gave Rouge his full attention. "Alright, why are you here, anyway?" he asked.

"Mr. Commander and Chief upstairs told me you had a little Eggman trouble." Rouge replied, pointing up at the ceiling where the president sat somewhere above them. "And it just so turned out that I had enough dealings with Eggman to be of assistance. So I agreed to fly on over to check things out. For a price, of course."

"You'll be adequately repaid, Rouge." Black promised, but she wore a scowl, telling everyone there it was no small price.

"Of course I will, otherwise I wouldn't be here, now would I?" Rouge remarked, giving Knuckles a pat on the head, to the echidna's annoyance, and hopping up onto the table to get a better look at Eggman in the other room.

Knuckles fumed for a moment, the mere sight of Rouge annoying him. "I fail to see why that...that..._thief_...must be here." he grumbled.

"Oh, lighten up." Sonic said. "It could be a whole lot worse."

He winced suddenly when he heard a familiar voice exclaim his name.

"I rest my case." he said, as another figure jumped from behind Black and grabbed Sonic into a hug.

"Surprise!" the pink hedgehog exclaimed giddily.

"Ack, Amy, what have I said about the hugs?" Sonic asked, trying to pull out of Amy's hug, only succeeding in dragging Amy across the room.

"Sonic, it's been too long since we saw each other last!" Amy exclaimed dramatically. "Can't you accept the fact that your love of your life is happy to see you?"

"But it's only been four weeks since we saw each other last!" Sonic objected, trying to pull the oblivious Amy off of him.

"I could've gone to the moon and back in that time!" Amy exclaimed, still holding Sonic tightly.

"She's right you know." Tails remarked. "In fact, back in the day, it only took astronauts to go to the moon in four days, and..."

"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed, "You're not helping!"

He finally pulled Amy off of him, but the moment he let go of her, Amy grabbed him again.

"Sonic, I heard that Eggman is up to something again from the president!" Amy said all in one breath. "He told me he wanted my insight on the matter, and when I heard you would be there, of course I said yes! Usually I leave the solving of Eggman's schemes to others, but if it means spending time with you..."

"I get the idea!" Sonic said, pulling Amy off of him again and quickly moving out of her reach. "Let's focus on Eggman now!"

"Well, I don't who you're fooling here, but this isn't Eggman." Rouge suddenly spoke, leaning on the sill of the one-way window as she studied Eggman intently.

"And how do you know?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, look at him!" Rouge said, gesturing to the prisoner. "I mean, we all have had enough dealings with Eggman to see what was plainly obvious. Just look at the ridiculous get-up for one thing! Even the _real_ Eggman has more taste than that."

"How do you know that Eggman isn't just faking, trying to fool us?" Sonic asked.

"Oh c'mon, Eggman's a _terrible _liar." Rouge pointed. "_Everyone _can see through his lies in a second."

"Well, I dunno, he's certainly had Knuckles fooled a couple of times." Sonic quipped.

Knuckles scowled.

"Anyway, my point is that this Eggman is _not _acting." Rouge continued.

"You know, she has a point." Watterson said. "Our scans are very thorough, and they can pick up the minor changes in Eggman's vitals to indicate that he's lying. And what we have so far indicates that he's not."

"So it's like a lie detector." Knuckles summarized.

"Only more accurate." Watterson added with a grin.

"But if Eggman's telling the truth, then what _is _he up to?" Bill asked.

"I still say he's gone crazy." Sonic stated.

"I agree!" Amy added.

"Oh, and what's your reasoning behind that?" Bill asked.

"I don't know." Amy admitted. "I just agreed with Sonic because he's always right. Right Sonic?"

Sonic just rolled his eyes.

"I'm telling you all, this isn't Eggman." Rouge insisted. "I don't know who he _really _is, but's he not Eggman, at least as we know him."

"But that can't be, Rouge." Tails said, as the scan completed and displayed it's results. "According to these scans, this is Eggman! His blood type, his fingerprints, his retinas, even his DNA, all match up!"

"Ha!" Knuckles said victoriously. "So you're wrong, Rouge!"

"Then he's crazy, then." Sonic deduced.

"No, that can't be either, Sonic." Tails said. "According to these scans, he's mentally healthy."

"Then I don't get it." Amy said. "If he's not crazy, and he _is _Eggman, then what is going on?"

Tails scratched his ear as he tried to come up with an explanation.

"Hmm." Watterson suddenly said, reaching past Tails to type on the keyboard. "Could I try something?" she worked for a moment. Finally, a comparison chart appeared, comparing the scan results to the data they already had on Eggman. She frowned. "According to this, there's a ninety-five percent variance between this Eggman and the normal Eggman." she concluded.

"That's close enough." Knuckles remarked.

"No, it isn't." Tails said, also typing at the keyboard now. "Where did that other five percent go?"

"Who cares?" Knuckles asked. "Five percent is five percent."

"I have to agree with Knuckles on this one, kid." Rouge voiced. "What difference does five percent make? It doesn't matter in my mind's eye."

"But it _does _matter in the math world." Tails said, still working at the computer. "I'm running the scan again, but this time on stricter parameters."

"What for?" Sonic asked.

"Just a hunch." Tails remarked.

Tails's new scan completed quickly. He skimmed through the results, Watterson reading over his shoulder.

"Whoa..." Tails remarked as he realized what he was reading.

"Whoa is right." Watterson agreed. "According to this, this Eggman we have here _is _Eggman, until you get right down to the very _atoms _that build up his molecules!"

"That's where that missing five percent went!" Tails exclaimed. "The atoms that make up this Eggman didn't match up!"

"It looks like there's one electron out of place every few hundred or so atoms." Watterson, running a few calculations in her head. "That sounds about right."

"But, how can the atoms be _different_?" Knuckles asked. "Aren't all atoms pretty much the same, no matter where they are, or what they make up?"

"Somehow they are." Tails said, thinking.

"But how?" Bill asked.

Tails thought for a moment longer before answering. "There is _one _possibility..." he said.


	5. Maxwell

Things are starting to come together. Original character introduced. He'll be present for a good majority of the story for here on out.

C h a p t e r F o u r

M a x w e l l

Sonic had started pacing again.

"How long did he say we'd have to wait until he got here?" he asked again.

"Thirty minutes." Tails said, glancing at the clock. "And it's been twenty-seven minutes. Three more minutes to go."

"Do you really think he'll be here at exactly thirty minutes?" Amy asked, unbelieving.

"I've never known him to be late." Tails said. "Besides, this is right up his alley. He might come early."

"So he could be coming through that door at any minute." Sonic said, pointing at the front door, he pacing approaching the speed of sound.

"Sonic." Tails said with a sigh. "Slow down."

Sonic screeched to a halt. "Yeah, I guess it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go supersonic in the president's entry hall." he admitted.

"Can't you ever keep still?" Knuckles asked.

"Not for longer than a few minutes." Sonic replied with a shrug. "I guess that's what I get for being the fastest thing alive."

"It's not your fault, Sonic!" Amy said, quickly coming to Sonic's side. "Everyone knows what it's like to keep still!"

"Yeah, I know." Sonic said, shaking Amy off of him and resuming pacing.

"I still say we don't need this guy's help." Rouge remarked. "The Eggman we've got locked up isn't the real Eggman, and that's all I care about. What we should be doing is tracking the _real _Eggman, not figuring out who Mr. Fake Egghead is."

"But aren't you curious?" Tails asked. "I mean the fake Eggman, as you call him, had to come from somewhere?"

"He's locked up, where he can't cause any trouble." Rouge pointed out. "Who cares where he's from?"

"It could be important though." Tails pointed out. "Let's say that he's a clone Eggman made as part of an experiment. Now clearly, if that was true, then this Eggman didn't turn out right. But learning more about him would tell us how Eggman made the clone in the first place."

"Cloning was the very first thing you ruled out, Mr. Smarty-pants." Rouge said hotly, missing the point.

"It was just an example." Tails said innocently.

"You know, Rouge does have a point, though." Knuckles said. "Say Eggman is out there still. He could be in the process of causing trouble right now, and we're missing it 'cause we're focusing our attention on a possibly _fake _Eggman."

"But what's Eggman gonna do?" Sonic asked. "We just trashed his secret base, which is no longer secret, and stole back the Chaos Emerald he had swiped. And if this fake Eggman does fit into the real Eggman's plans in anyway, we've got him captured and locked up where he won't be causing harm, just as Rouge said."

"But you know Eggman, Sonic." Knuckles said. "He's always got a Plan B."

They were silent for a moment.

"You know, I've been thinking about this whole incident for awhile now." Amy said suddenly. "And I think we're doing the right thing trying to learn more about this fake Eggman and where he came from. There's too much about this whole mess that doesn't add up."

"Yet." Tails said, glancing at his watch. "I can guarantee that they will once our visitor arrives in three...two...one..."

The doorbell rang. Tails stepped over to the door, and swung it open. The others blinked in slight surprise when they saw who they had been waiting for the past thirty minutes.

"Guys," Tails said. "Meet Maxwell H. Galilei."

They looked the figure up and down as he stepped into the entry hall. He was a hedgehog like Amy and Sonic, but was colored a deep red, a darker shade than even Knuckles red fur and quills. The tips of his quills, however, lightened to a fire orange color. The quills themselves arched backwards like Sonic's only they were shorter, and smaller quills curved down to hang over the tops of Maxwell's eyes like bangs.

Also like Sonic, he had a peach colored chest and belly, but this was hidden by a completely black, silk, vest that blended well with his dark red fur. A gold chain dangled from one pocket, indicating that he had a pocket watch hidden within it. The overall affect gave Maxwell a somewhat professional look, regardless of his vibrantly colored fur and quills.

But it ended there, for everything else about the hedgehog bore signs of modern technology. He wore sporty white tennis shoes with black stripes, the fancy kind, with the enhanced heel supports. On his wrists, worn like cuffs or bracelets, were wristband-like devices with some kind touchscreen and small buttons on each one, and were similarly colored to his shoes; white with black stripes. A PDA or some other kind of handheld computer was slipped in the vest pocket opposite of the one containing the unseen pocket watch.

Maxwell scanned the group watching him while strapping something flat and rectangular to his back, looking them over each in turn.

"Well." he said in a calm voice. "You lot certainly aren't quite like what I expected."

"To be honest, you aren't exactly like _I_ was expecting." Sonic remarked with a shrug. "Tails had failed to really describe what you looked like, see."

"Ah yes, young Miles Prower." Maxwell said, turning to look at Tails. "I believe the last time we met was that brief encounter a year or two ago at that mechanics convention. If I remember things right, I gave you a few suggestions towards the transformation technology incorporated into your aircraft, the _Tornado,_ wasn't it?"

"Actually, it's Sonic's plane, but I make most of the modifications to it." Tails admitted sheepishly. "And yes, you did give me that advice, and it helped greatly. It really worked out some of the bugs."

Maxwell nodded, and turned to face the others. He frowned at their expressions. "What?" he finally asked. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Well, it's just you don't look very...sciencey." Rouge stated bluntly. "I think that orange has something to do with it."

"Well, I can assure you, I am very much a scientist." Maxwell said politely. "I just think it's not necessary for my outward appearances to reflect that."

"Maxwell H. Galilei..." Knuckles repeated, rubbing his chin. "I can't say I've ever heard that name before."

"That's because you don't keep up with the science world." Tails said. "Mr. Galilei is well-known for his knowledge in theoretical science, particularly in cybernetics and quantum physics."

"Please, Tails, just call me Max." Maxwell said.

"What does the "H" stand for?" Amy asked suddenly.

"Guess." Maxwell said.

Amy shrugged. "Hedgehog?" she said questioningly.

"Close enough." Maxwell said.

Sonic cleared his throat and approached Maxwell. "Well, we know you now." he said, extending his hand. "But let us introduce ourselves. I'm..."

"Sonic the Hedgehog, well known for combating with Eggman and defeating him on countless occasions, occasionally resulting in the saving of the world, and also well known for your super speed." Maxwell finished rapidly, half-grinning. "You know, I'll admit I admire you a little Sonic. Like you, I have a liking for fast speeds, but unfortunately, I can't run nearly as fast as you can without help."

"Oh, well, thank you." Sonic said, unsure what else to say.

"Well, I'm..." Amy began to say, but was cut off by Maxwell again.

"...Amy Rose, self-proclaimed girlfriend of Sonic's, and have also helped to battle Eggman." Maxwell said, and then turned to Knuckles. "And you are Knuckles, the last of the Echidna people, guardian of the Master Emerald on Angel Island. You, too, have helped to defeat Eggman." he grinned fully now. "You see, you've all have become fairly well known in the world." he then turned to Rouge and frowned. "Except you." he admitted. "I can't say I know who you are."

Rouge, looking hurt, replied, "Why, I'm Rouge the Bat, of course."

Maxwell thought for a moment. "No, I definitely can't say I've heard of you." he said.

Rouge scowled at Maxwell for a split second, while Knuckles stifled a chuckle, but was quickly to bounce back from the blow. "It must be because I keep such a low profile." she deduced confidently, running a hand over one of her large bat ears.

"Or maybe it's just because you aren't very popular." Knuckles said with a snort, chuckling again.

Rouge shot him a look.

"Well, I came here as quickly as possible." Maxwell said, rubbing his hands together. "Tails told me what was going on, and I must say I'm _very _anxious to see the information you've gathered on this 'fake' Eggman. I think I might already have a theory even to explain all of this."

"Well, then, right this way, Max." Sonic said, remembering to call Maxwell by his preferred nickname, and lead the way back down into the underground facility where the presumed fake Eggman was being imprisoned and studied.

* * *

Maxwell frowned as he looked over the data scrolling across the computer screen, occasionally looking up at the still-pacing Eggman in the cell curiously. As he did this, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, and doctors Bill and Watterson watched him work, curious what Maxwell was thinking.

"Interesting." Maxwell mumbled. "Interesting, interesting, very interesting."

"What's interesting?" Sonic blurted out, unable to stand the suspense any longer.

"A great deal of things, Sonic." Maxwell said, turning around in the seat to face them. "First and foremost is that the Eggman you see in that cell technically _is _Eggman."

"What?" Dr. Bill said, surprised. "But what about the five percent difference?"

"I'm getting to that." Maxwell said. "But yes, he _is _Eggman. Just not as you know him."

Knuckles frowned, and stated the obvious. "Isn't that a little contradictory?"

"Not at all, when you look at the big picture." Maxwell said. "The five percent difference is a very little thing when you think about where he came from."

"Okay, now you've lost me." Watterson remarked.

"It's quite simple, really." Maxwell said. "This Eggman is from an alternate reality."

The reaction to this statement was mixed. Tails's face brightened, indicating he had already theorized this and was just waiting for confirmation. Watterson gasped, surprised. Bill slapped his face, kicking himself for not thinking that sooner. The rest simply wore blank expressions.

"Alternate reality?" Rouge repeated, skeptical.

"Isn't that one of those things where things seem the same but are really different?" Sonic asked, trying to explain what he knew of alternate realities in terms her understood.

"You're on the right track." Maxwell said. "As you know, I study a great deal in the field of quantum physics. And quantum physics, to explain it simply, state that our universe is ruled on pure chance, and that the things that are happening within it occur randomly. This principle of chance indicates that every now and then our universe kind of "branches" off to form another, almost identical, universe that continues to coincide with the first. These are called parallel universes, or alternate realities. The differences in each of these universes will vary in degree. They could be things as little as a difference in the exact moment Tails blinks, for example."

"Really." Rouge said, still looking skeptical.

"Now, the Eggman we have here, clearly comes from a universe that is more different than our own." Maxwell continued. "One that probably branched off sometime ago and chance has been ruling more and more differently as time goes by."

"So you're saying that out there, somewhere, in the midst of things, Sonic is Eggman's ally?" Knuckles asked, finding the idea a little hard to believe.

Maxwell saw this. "I know it seems a little far fetched, but when it comes to alternate realities, anything is possible." he said.

"This explains the variance in the atoms that make up Eggman." Watterson said. "They come from an entirely different universe."

"That was what clued me in." Maxwell said. "Atoms should all stay the same in our universe."

"That's what I said!" Knuckles exclaimed, pleased at least someone agreed with him on that matter.

"Okay, assuming you're right here for a moment, and we really do have an Eggman from another reality." Amy said. "How did he get here?"

"There are several possible theories." Maxwell said. "But I think it's pretty safe to say who triggered it to happen."

"Our Eggman." Sonic said.

"And I'm guessing he probably did it unintentionally, otherwise he wouldn't have allowed this Eggman to escape so easily." Maxwell added.

"But how did he do it?" Bill asked, running through the possibilities.

"I'm presuming the Chaos Emerald had something to do with it." Tails reasoned. "Sonic said he found it in the same room as this Eggman."

"Very good, Tails, I was thinking the same thing." Maxwell said. "But I'm not sure even a Chaos Emerald has enough sheer power to jump into a different universe."

"Maybe that's what Eggman was _trying _to do." Sonic reason. "Triple the power output in a single Chaos Emerald. Maybe so he wouldn't have to steal the other six, or mess with the Master Emerald, and be able to use it for his purposes."

"But even _I _know that would make a Chaos Emerald greatly unstable." Rouge remarked. "What was Eggman thinking?"

"Maybe we can go and steal the security tapes from Eggman's base." Tails proposed. "Maybe they could clue us into what Eggman was trying to do, and what _did _happen exactly to bring this other Eggman into our reality."

"Probably would find out everything from those." Rouge remarked. "I remember that Eggman has annoying habit of talking to himself."

"Well, whatever we do, we need to figure it out, because our alternate reality Eggman friend here needs to go back." Maxwell said, turning around to look at the Eggman pacing in the cell.

"Why?" Amy asked, not understanding.

"Because he doesn't belong in this universe." Maxwell explained. "Who knows what will happen if he stays here for too long."


	6. Solutions

C h a p t e r F i v e

S o l u t i o n s

Sonic looked in-between the trees at Eggman's previously secret base. "That's weird." he remarked. "Nothing's seemed to have changed since me and Knuckles left."

"Usually that's a bad sign, isn't it?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, little buddy, usually it does." Sonic agreed.

"Maybe Eggman slipped up and is trying to lure us back into a position to set things straight again." Rouge reasoned, fluttering her bat wings as she landed

"No, I don't think so." Maxwell said, rubbing his chin. "Something about all of this still doesn't seem right."

"Well, whatever the case, it's too easy." Knuckles said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "There are no guards to speak, and repairs haven't been made at all." he looked at Sonic. "Probably should be easy to get in the same way we did last time."

"Alright then." Sonic said, grinning. "I like easy stuff. Things go faster that way. But just to double check..."

He raced out into the clearing, and quickly did a few laps around the building to look for any trouble.

Maxwell shook his head admirably. "Dang, I wish I could run at the speed of sound." he remarked, mostly to himself.

Sonic returned in a flash. "All clear." he reported. "Let's go."

They marched out into the clearing, and approached the building from the spot Knuckles had climbed earlier. Amy studied the holes in the wall, running her fingers over them.

"So how are we going to get in?" she asked, not seeing the way. "Some of us can't climb, run, or fly up y'know."

"I know." Sonic said, uncoiling a rope from his shoulder. He tossed one end to Rouge, who caught it. "You and Tails fly up with that, and the rest of us will climb up, holding on to it."

"Ah." Rouge said, understanding. "Well, c'mon then, two-tails."

She took to the air, hardly waiting for Tails to get ready to follow. Frowning, Tails twirled his two tails rapidly and hurried to catch up with Rouge, the rope trailing behind them. Eventually they vanished from sight behind the curve of the bottom part of the building. A few moments later, the rope went taunt against the wall. Just to be safe, though, Sonic gave it a few tugs.

"Ladies first." he said, stepping aside for Amy to climb up.

Batting her eyelids prettily at Sonic, Amy grabbed the rope and started to climb. Maxwell then followed, with Knuckles trailing behind him. Sonic brought up the end. When he reached the top, he found the others looking the tower that poked up from the dome up and down.

"Boy, you two really left a mess for Eggman to clean." Amy remarked.

"And no one's done a thing to clean it up." Rouge said indignantly, sweeping debris aside with one foot.

"Just goes to show how lazy Eggman really is." Sonic said, stepping through the broken window and inside the tower.

"Probably why he's so fat." Knuckles added, following.

"Remember, me and Knuckles didn't get all of the 'bots, so keep your eyes peeled for any stragglers." Sonic said.

Maxwell pulled out his handheld computer and waved it around. "I'm not detecting anything on my scanner." he remarked. "We should be okay. It seems all of the robots are down in the lower levels of the facility."

"Still..." Sonic said, slightly disappointed there wouldn't be much chance to knock a few robots around. "...just be careful."

They scaled the spiral staircase in silence. A few moments they were inside the laboratory at the top of the tower.

Rouge whistled. "Impressive." she remarked, eyeing the complicated the equipment. "A little small, and nothing I would really be too terribly interested in, but still..."

"Still no Eggman." Sonic remarked, scratching his quills. "Where could he be?"

"Hopefully the security tapes should tell us that." Maxwell said, stepping over to a console. He tapped a few controls. "Hmm." he grunted. "Eggman locked the controls with a security system."

"Can you unlock 'em?" Sonic asked.

"Oh sure, easily." Maxwell said, pulling open the panel under the control panel and looking inside. "It's just annoying, that's all. Tails, you got a light?"

Tails pulled out a penlight and held it for Maxwell so he could work. Finally, he gave a cable a decisive yank. Pulling his head out from under the panel, he pressed a button, and was happy to see it respond this time.

"There." he said. "That deactivated all the remaining robots in the facility." he then paused and added, "I think."

"You think?" Knuckles asked, alarmed.

"It was either this button or that button." Maxwell admitted, pointing at one button, and then the other.

"I can check." Tails volunteered, and ducked his head under the control panel again.

"Don't you know for sure?" Rouge asked, hands on her hips.

"The buttons aren't labeled." Maxwell explained. "And they all look alike."

"This explains why Eggman's always so easy to beat." Sonic remarked, smirking.

"Never fear." Tails said, pulling his head out again. "You pushed the right button Maxwell. At least, that's assuming I followed the wires right. They're pretty tangled up in there."

Sonic flinched. "Stop while you're ahead, little buddy." he said.

"So, what does the other button do?" Knuckles asked.

"Pretty much alert the other robots that we're here." Maxwell explained with a nervous grin.

"So either you shut the robots off, or just sent them after us." Knuckles summarized.

"Great." Rouge said.

"Can't you just push the other button just to be safe?" Amy asked, who had been studying the podium-like machine in the center of the room curiously for the past few moments.

"If I pushed the right button the first time," Maxwell began, "pressing the other button would only turn them on again."

"I don't suppose anyone's thought to just go down there and check." Tails proposed.

"It was jammed pack with robots, Tails!" Sonic objected, then turned to Maxwell. "Max, how sure are you that you pushed the right button?"

"About seventy to eighty percent sure." Maxwell replied.

"Good enough." Sonic said, tapping his foot impatiently. "Now let's get on with what we came here for."

Maxwell nodded, and began typing controls. "Playback should come up on that screen in just a moment." he reported, pointing at the screen in question.

The screen flickered to life, and showed an empty laboratory. Maxwell pressed the fast-forward control, and the playback zoomed forward for a moment until their Eggman appeared on the screen. Maxwell froze the playback, rewound a few seconds, then started it again just as Eggman stepped into the lab. In his hands was the green Chaos Emerald.

"This is the right spot." Sonic announced unnecessarily.

Eggman surveyed the room, then put the emerald into his pocket. He spent the next several moments tinkering with various control panels and the podium-like device in the center of the lab, mumbling to himself. Eventually, he called a robot into the room. Sonic recognized it, and knew it was among the ones he had defeated last time he arrived at the facility.

Eggman for several long moments stayed at one control panel, fiddling with the controls while keeping an eye on the display screen nearby. While he did this, the robot worked with the podium device. Finally, Eggman smiled as he made a decisive tap at the control panel he worked on and turned to face the robot, which also seemed to have completed whatever it was doing.

"Preparations completed as requested, Dr. Robotnik." the robot announced.

"Good, now go." Eggman said, shooing the robot away with one hand. "I will be the sole witness of this experiment."

"Experiment, huh?" Rouge said with a smirk.

"Shush." Maxwell hushed.

After the robot had left, Eggman pulled the Chaos Emerald from his pocket and held it up. "You may be powerful," he said to the emerald, "but some of your more _interesting _abilities is cut off from me." he placed the emerald into the machine. "But let's see if I can't change that."

He approached the device's control panel, and worked with it for a moment. Eyeing a display that was not in the view of the security camera, the emerald started to rattle.

"What the..." Maxwell remarked, eyeing the emerald.

It's glow flickered, then suddenly surged, flaring brightly, before the flare of light decreased as suddenly. The camera flickered suddenly. The group eyed the emerald displayed on the screen, which was glowing brighter than it should.

"Knuckles." Sonic suddenly said. "Tell me that's not what I think it is."

"It is." Knuckles said, frowning. "It's..."

But he was cut off when Eggman on the recording suddenly started to talk. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "I did it! By forcing the emerald into an artificially induced overload, I have made it become even more powerful than before! It is now a _Super _Emerald!"

Maxwell's eyes widened. "_Super _Emerald?" he repeated.

This time it was Rouge's turn to shush him.

Eggman laughed for a moment. "Now!" he continued, "If my tests are correct, this Super Emerald is now unstable enough that anyone may use it's special abilities, such as myself. This includes Chaos Control. I think I'll try it, and find out."

Gingerly, he lifted the emerald out of the machine and held it over his head. "Chaos...CONTROL!" he exclaimed.

The emerald flared up again, this time growing so bright that the room was drowned out in it's glow. Suddenly, the image flickered, and erupted into static.

"What just happened?" Amy asked, alarmed.

"He did Chaos Control." Maxwell replied simply.

A moment later, the image reappeared just in time for the emerald to fall to the floor, reverted back to a normal Chaos Emerald again. Eggman was gone. Now, lying on the floor unconscious was the alternate Eggman. Maxwell froze the image.

"So that's how he did it." Tails remarked.

"Clearly, he underestimated just how much Chaos Control would be affected by his little experiment." Maxwell remarked. "But I've never heard of a _Super _Emerald before."

"I have." Knuckles stated flatly.

"And I've used all seven at once...er...once." Sonic added.

"There are seven?" Maxwell repeated confused.

"Of course." Knuckles said. "They're just Chaos Emeralds empowered by the Master Emerald. At least, under normal circumstances."

"Chaos Emeralds with more juice." Sonic explained in short. "Used them once to become Hyper Sonic to beat Eggman. Let me tell you, that form is both cool and weird at the same time."

"Whatever the case, this explains how Eggman did whatever he did." Knuckles said.

"And why we haven't seen him since." Rouge added. "Seems to me that he managed to swap places with this other Eggman. Probably out wreaking havoc, having the time of his life, in this other reality."

"Then why spoil his fun?" Sonic asked with a grin.

"Wait, you mean _leave _him there?" Maxwell asked.

"Sure!" Sonic said. "Once we get this other Eggman back, our universe will be Eggman free!"

"But I told you!" Maxwell said. "Our Eggman doesn't belong in that universe! The longer he stays there, the more he affects things in that universe!"

"And that affects _us_...how?" Sonic asked.

Maxwell thought for a long moment to try and come up with an answer. "Oh all right." he finally said. "We'll do it."

"Can you recreate the Super Emerald?" Amy asked, running a hand over the culprit machine.

"Easily, now that I've seen how it was done." Maxwell said, looking the machine over. "We'll need the alternate Eggman and of course, the Chaos Emerald."

"Coming right up!" Sonic said, and sped out the door.

* * *

Once the glow had died down, Maxwell pulled the Super Emerald from the machine and handed it to the alternate Eggman. He regarded it curiously.

"This isn't a trick, is it?" he asked.

"Look, do you want to get back to your universe or not?" Sonic asked huffily.

"Well..." the alternate Eggman remarked, looking at the emerald. "I suppose."

"Good." Maxwell said, slowly backing out the door of the lab to where the others stood, grabbing Sonic's hand a pulled him with. "All you have to do is say Chaos Control. I think, anyway." he glanced at Sonic. "That right?"

"It helps to envision where you want to do and end up." Sonic said, as they both stepped out the room.

"And don't try anything funny, big boy." Rouge said, leaning against the frame of the door. "There's a whole army from the United Federation surrounding this building. You're trapped here."

"And even if you did try to escape," Tails added, "You'd have to get through us first."

"You animals don't scare me." the alternate Eggman said, but he moved so that the podium machine stood between him and the others. He glanced at the emerald again. "That's really all I have to do?"

"That's all." Maxwell assured him.

The alternate Eggman looked at the emerald once again, then held it over his head in preparation to do the jump, unwittingly striking the same pose his double had.

Knuckles tapped Maxwell on the shoulder. "You sure we won't get teleported as well?" he whispered in his ear.

"Positive." Maxwell replied. "The emerald's jumping power should extend further than that lab."

"And since we're _outside _the lab..." Amy added, pointing with a grin at the doorway they stood just outside of. "...we're safe."

"I dunno." Rouge said, frowning. "I still say he'll try something with that emerald."

"I highly doubt he could even if he wanted to." Maxwell said. "The Super Emerald is too unstable to be used in such a controlled way. Not to mention it loses it's charge too quickly. He could only do one attempt at some form of Chaos Control, and then it wouldn't be much good for him, other than a battery or something like that."

The alternate Eggman still stared into the emerald, lost in thought. He was clearly debating something.

Sonic tapped his foot impatiently. "Well, get on with it already!" he exclaimed.

The alternate Eggman jumped in surprise, but complied. "Chaos..." he hesitated a moment. "...Control?"

The emerald suddenly flared up, filling the room with white light. Sonic and the others shielded their eyes as the light bled out the open doorway and filled the hallway they stood in...

* * *

Sonic opened his eyes again and realized he was lying on the floor with a slight headache.

"Ooh." he grumbled, sitting up and looked around. Immediately, he sensed something out of place.

"Max, give me one good reason why I shouldn't strangle you." Sonic said, turning to the scientist as he and the others came to again.

"Wuh-oh." Rouge remarked, looking around.

"I double that." Tails added.

"This isn't good." Amy said, looking scared.

"But I don't get it!" Maxwell said, panicked. "This shouldn't have happened!"

"Well, double check your math, Maxwell." Knuckles growled, glaring at the scientist. "'Cuz it did."

Sonic found a window and walked over it, peering out it. Where there should of been a large clearing in a middle of a forest was a sprawling technological metropolis. And it did not look welcoming.

"We're in another reality." Sonic stated plainly.


	7. Eggman

C h a p t e r S i x

E g g m a n

"We're in another reality."

The first thing Knuckles did after hearing this was slap Maxwell upside the head. "Shouldn't extend further than the lab, you said!" he roared, advancing on the scientist. "We'd be safe outside in the hallway, you said! Nothing would go wrong, you said! Well, something _did _go wrong! And now, no thanks to you, we're in a totally different universe!"

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Rouge exclaimed, quickly stepping between the two as Knuckles's hands curled into fists, and Maxwell started to pull something menacing from an inside pocket of his vest. "Fighting isn't going to help anything!"

"Maybe not, but it'll make me feel better!" Knuckles retorted, still trying to approach Maxwell, starting to push Rouge backwards as she struggled to slow him down.

"Whoa, easy there, big fella." Rouge remarked.

"_I am not big!_" Knuckles roared, taking the remark the wrong way.

"Hey, take a chill pill, Knux." Sonic remarked, still at the window. "Rouge's right. Fighting isn't going to do us good, regardless of however it makes you feel."

"Besides, this can't be my fault." Maxwell said, pulling out his handheld computer and working with it. "I triple-checked the math, and it checked out each time..."

"You and your stupid math!" Knuckles roared, but he threw his hands into the air, and stopped trying to get at the hedgehog scientist.

"Max, couldn't you have possibly gotten the equations wrong?" Tails suggested, looking over Maxwell's shoulder to look at the display of the handheld computer. "I mean, no one's tried this before to our knowledge. Couldn't it be possible that something happened we didn't expect?"

"No, the equations were very thorough." Maxwell insisted. "I've studied this for years, I know what I'm doing."

"At least that's what you hope." Knuckles said, venting his anger by kicking a nearby wall and leaving a dent in it.

"I'm more worried about getting home, and quickly, than what went wrong." Sonic said, eyeing the window. He saw that the metropolis outside was populated mostly by robots, and a lot of them looked a little too familiar. "It looks like the Eggman of this universe finally got his wish and founded that Eggman Empire he's always raving on about."

"Hey, wait a minute..." Rouge said, furrowing her brow, but did not elaborate further as she started wandering around the room.

Amy came over to look, and trembled at the sight. Sonic noticed how scared she looked, and permitted a break in his policies, wrapping one arm around her and bringing her into a comforting hug.

"It still all checks out." Maxwell suddenly announced. "This _shouldn't _have happened."

"Quit looking at the math, and start looking around you, Maxwell!" Knuckles said, motioning his arms at the massive and empty room they stood in. "You have all the proof you need that this could happen!"

"No, you don't understand!" Maxwell said. "The universe, parallel or not, is very tightly restricted by math, more than you think. If the math doesn't check out, especially when you _know _it's right, then something's not right. At all."

"Well, if you ask me..." Rouge began suddenly, hands on her hips.

"And we didn't." Knuckles remarked.

Rouge ignored him. "...our Eggman friend from the alternate reality is behind this." she finished.

"And what makes you think that, Rouge?" Maxwell asked, looking up from his handheld computer.

"You mean that I'm the only one who's noticed that he's _missing_?" she exclaimed, annoyed.

Everybody looked around, and realized she was right. No Eggman of any sort was anywhere in the room.

"Maybe..." Amy said hesitantly, "...he regained consciousness first and escaped."

"Already checked that." Rouge said. "No trace of him."

"How can you be sure?" Knuckles asked.

"You think I didn't make a career in jewel theft and spying and not learn how to do stuff like this?" Rouge said. "All I know is that Eggman is not here."

"...when he should be." Maxwell added, frowning as he saw her point.

"Yeah, I bet that's it!" Tails said. "Chaos Control doesn't necessarily _have _to affect yourself. Theoretically, you could get it to, in this case, teleport someone else, but leave yourself, and I bet that's what Alternate Eggman did! Right Sonic?"

"Probably, little buddy." Sonic agreed.

"But, why?" Maxwell asked. "He had everything he wanted right here. Why would he want to stay in our universe and get us out of the picture?"

"I don't know." Sonic admitted, turning away from the window and rejoining the rest of the group, bringing Amy with. "But I still say we need focus on getting back to our universe. And do it quickly. I don't think we're going to be exactly welcomed here."

"You're right." Maxwell said, rubbing his orange-tipped quills as he thought about all that would need to be done. "Okay, first we'll need a Chaos Emerald."

"Easier said than done." Knuckles remarked. "We don't even know where they are in this universe!"

"We can track them down, Knuckles, we always have in the past." Sonic said confidently. "Besides, we only need one, and it shouldn't matter which."

"Plus, you've got an expert jewel hunter with you." Rouge added.

"Oh please." Knuckles snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Second, we need some way to convert it into a Super Emerald." Maxwell went on.

"Okay, the best way probably would be to track down the Master Emerald and use it." Tails suggested.

"No it won't." Knuckles added. "I don't know if I'm the guy guarding the Master Emerald in this universe, but it doesn't matter. Whoever it is won't let us _near _the thing."

"Without a fight, anyway." Sonic added.

"I agree with Knuckles." Maxwell said. "We probably should focus on finding a way to recreate the Eggman of our universe's device, the one he used to make the Super Emerald."

"How are we going to do that?" Rouge asked skeptically.

"You've got me." Maxwell admitted. "I studied the machine before we ended up here, but nowhere near enough to rebuild it. Still, I might be able to jury-rig something."

"Good enough." Sonic said. "Anything else we need to do?"

"Just stay out of trouble, and probably avoid letting too many people know were not from this reality, I guess." Maxwell said.

"Then we aren't off to a very good start, then." Amy suddenly remarked, pointing down the length of the room.

They all turned, and saw a small brigade of robots approach.

"Freeze." one of them, built differently from the others, spoke. "You are under arrest by order of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, emperor and ruler of the Eggman Empire."

"Yeah I'll freeze." Knuckles growled, charging the robot, "Right after I've done you in!"

"Knuckles, wait!" Maxwell exclaimed, who had been studying his handheld computer again.

But it was too late. The lead robot fired some sort of weapon that encased Knuckles in a bubble of energy, trapping him. letting out an angry yell, he tried to force his way out, punching and kicking the energy bubble in anyway he could, but to no avail. Sonic moved to react next, and as a result, the robot fired the weapon again, also trapping Sonic in a bubble of energy, lifting him off the ground.

Rouge started to go next, but Maxwell held her up. "No, don't!" he said. "You'll only get trapped too."

Rouge seemed hesitant, but nodded. The robot detected their submission, and turned to go, the rest of the robots moving to encircle them.

"Follow me." the robot spoke. "Dr. Robotnik has been expecting you."

"Expecting us?" Amy repeated, and exchanged glances with Maxwell.

They were lead down the many long and complex tunnels of what seemed to be some sort of fortress. Maxwell thought is would've looked impressive was it not for the fact that it was rendered inhuman and heartless by the fact that it was filled with cold metal and oily machines. Eventually they arrived in what seemed to be a throne room, for a strip of red carpet lay on the floor, and a big, gold chair sat on a small podium at the end of the room. And in the chair sat...

"Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed from within his energy bubble as it floated along behind the lead robot.

And so it was, the Eggman of their universe, dressed in his typical attire of the red jacket, black pants, and sunglasses, and he had the overall science feel to his that his alternate reality double did not. He sat luxuriously in the throne, being hand-fed food from a service drone. He grinned when he saw his visitors.

"Ah, I've been wondering when you'd all get here!" Eggman exclaimed joyfully. "Took you long enough! Surely it didn't take you that long to figure out what happened, did it?"

"What do you want?" Amy asked.

"Well, I figured you'd try to come and get me, so I had these robots lie in wait for you to come." Eggman explained. "And they did just that, too, thank you very much." he patted the lead robot on the head, like one would pat a dog on the head. "You're dismissed, be sure to leave guards at the door, though, and stay within hearing range. I'll want you back in a few moments."

The robots nodded, and left, leaving their prisoners where they were.

"Hey!" Knuckles exclaimed from within his bubble. "Can't you take the time to free us, first?"

"Oh, sorry about that." Eggman said, and waved a device strapped to one hand absentmindedly.

The bubbles instantly seemed to pop, freeing Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles got up with a growl, moving as if he planned to attack Eggman, but then thought against it. He clearly feared that he'd end up in a bubble again, for the robot responsible for that had remained to guard the door, and was watching intently.

"Now," Eggman said, sipping a drink, and standing up, straightening his front. "Where were we?"

"Explaining what you wanted, I believe?" Maxwell offered flatly.

Eggman glanced at him. "Who's this?" he asked. "Another hedgehog for me to worry about?"

"My name is Maxwell H. Galilei." the scientist hedgehog stated,

"What does the 'H' stand for?" Eggman asked, curious.

"Headache." Maxwell quipped, "Which I hope that's what you'll have when this is all over."

"A wise guy, huh?" Eggman said, frowning. "Not like it'll do you much good."

"What do you want with us?" Amy asked again.

"Nothing much, just a guarantee that I can stay in this universe." Eggman said.

"Like it here, do you?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

"Oh, it could use a thing or two here and there, but overall, yes." Eggman said, pulling the tip of his moustache.

"But what about us?" Rouge asked. "Are you going to send us back?"

"And let all of you, my long time enemies (with the exception of Mr. Galilei here, of course) get away?" Eggman asked. "I think not. Alternate reality or not, you all still make for good prisoners, so that's what you'll be."

"But you can't stay here!" Maxwell said. "You don't belong in this universe! Any great number of terrible things could happen!"

"Do I look like I care?" Eggman asked, sitting back down in his chair and accepting another grape from the service drone. "Besides, I've been here for several hours now, and nothing wrong has happened."

"You know, he's got a point." Tails said. "Shouldn't any negative effects turn up by now?"

"Not necessarily, Tails." Maxwell said. "Whatever the case, he can't stay here. In fact, none of us can! We could be risking all of our lives by doing that!"

"You are starting to annoy me!" Eggman exclaimed loudly at Maxwell.

"And you're starting to annoy me, fatso!" Maxwell yelled back.

In a flash, Eggman had lifted the device strapped to his hand, and it released a wave of energy that hit Maxwell with enough force that it sent him across the room. Eggman stared at the scientist hedgehog pick himself back up while breathing heavily in his rage.

"You know, if it helps things," Sonic quickly said, "We were going to let you stay here Eggman. We were just going to..."

"Robots!" Eggman yelled. "Come and take these furballs and lock them in the dungeons! Don't let them out for anything!"

The robots returned, encircling the group. Sonic sized them up for a moment, and decided now would probably be a good idea to be submissive about this. But as they were escorted away, he gave Eggman a glare.

"As always, Eggman, you'll pay for this." he vowed.

"Same goes for me." Knuckles echoed.

And then they let themselves be taken from the room, going back through the winding hallways, this time taking a different route that lead them down into the depths of the fortress. It wasn't until they had long left the throne room that Maxwell took a step closer to Sonic.

"Hey Sonic." he said, whispering in his ear. "Just fast can you go?"

"I dunno." Sonic said with a shrug. "How fast do you need me to go?"

"Fast enough to take out that lead robot so we can escape?" Maxwell proposed.

"Sure thing." Sonic said, and suddenly vanished in a blue blur. The next thing they all knew, the lead robot was down and deactivated, quickly followed by two more.

That was all that was needed. The others charged the remaining robots, taking them out in their various special ways. Very soon, all the robots had fallen.

Sonic screeched to a halt next to Maxwell, who wasn't even out of breath. "That fast enough?" he asked.

"Very, thank you." Maxwell said. "Now let's hurry! Someone's bound to have heard that battle."

They hurried down the nearest corridor, hoping it had a way out.

"Okay, Maxy, what's the plan?" Rouge asked as they sped along.

"I don't know, I'm making this up as I go along!" Maxwell said. "For now let's focus on escaping."

"Good enough for me!" Sonic said. "Getting right down to business is my specialty!"

"Okay, but how do we escape?" Knuckles asked as they turned a corner.

"I'm betting those big doors there lead outside." Sonic said, pointing directly ahead of them. "Of course, that might be why the big sign with the word "exit" is hanging over them..."

"Let's go, before more robots get here!" Tails said. "I can hear them coming!"

"I'll get the door!" Knuckles said, and with a yell, charged the doors, punching them with his powerful fists. They swung open with a crash.

The others sped through them only to come face to face with a whole armada of robots.

"Okay, maybe going outside wasn't the greatest idea after all..." Sonic remarked


	8. Splitting Up

C h a p t e r S e v e n

S p l i t t i n g U p

"There's never an easy way out, is there?" Knuckles asked as he watched robots approach them from all around.

"I say we fight." Amy said, pulling her Piko Piko Hammer out from seemingly nowhere.

"How do you do that, anyway?" Sonic asked.

"Let's talk later, right now we need a plan!" Maxwell said, as the robots started to press in on it's prey.

"Here's one!" Rouge said, and suddenly took off, flying away.

"Works for me!" Sonic said, and sped away, squeezing through a gap in the robots just before it closed.

"Hey, Sonic!" Amy exclaimed. "What about me?"

One robot lunged at Tails. "Yipe!" he exclaimed, and took to the air as well, following Rouge for lack of a better path.

"What, and leave me here?" Knuckles said, jumping up and grabbing Tail's legs, nearly dragging the two-tailed fox to the ground before Tails quickly spun his tails faster to compensate.

"What about us?" Amy asked indignantly.

"You hold them off for just a second!" Maxwell said, pulling something flat and rectangular from where it was strapped to his back.

"Be quick!" Amy pleaded, swinging her hammer as the robots started to venture too closely.

Maxwell pressed a control on the flat rectangle and threw it down at the ground. It's ends suddenly expanded outward to form a kind of board. It stopped to hover just off the ground. Quickly, Maxwell hopped onto the hoverboard, pulling out a headset with an eyepiece on it and slipped it on. He turned the board around, and zipped forward. Grabbing Amy and pulling her onto the board as he sped past her.

As Amy, startled, quickly latched onto his waist, Maxwell pointed the hoverboard to rise over the sea of robots, flying up to a higher height and going constantly higher. It was then that the two noticed that the fortress they had just escaped was surrounded by a tall wall.

"I don't suppose this thing can go any higher, can it?" Amy asked, panicked, as she put away her Piko Piko Hammer.

"Yes." Maxwell replied. "Hang on."

Just when it seemed they would crash, Maxwell leaned on the tail of the hoverboard heavily, making the nose flip upward to the point that the board now hung completely vertical, it's nose pointing skyward. Accelerating the board, they zipped up and over the walls, leveling out to cruise over the robotizied city below them.

"Whoa." Amy remarked. "That was actually kinda fun."

"It must have been." Maxwell said. "You hang out with a hedgehog who travels at speeds much faster than that everyday."

"True." Amy admitted.

They cruised along for a moment. Amy stared down at the city below them.

"You know," she said, "it almost doesn't look so bad from up here."

They passed through a cloud of pollution that left them gagging and coughing by the time they exited again.

"Almost." Amy repeated with added emphasis.

"I wonder where the others went." Maxwell said, pulling out his handheld computer and working with it's scanners for a moment. "I can't seem to find them anymore."

"Shouldn't be easy?" Amy asked. "We're in the middle of an Eggman Empire! All the inhabitants are robots!"

"That's what you'd think." Maxwell agreed. "But for some reason, I'm detecting much more life down there than robots. Real life, you know, like you and me."

They were silent for a moment, looking at one another.

"Maybe the pollution is doing something funny with your scanner." Amy suggested hesitantly.

"Maybe." Maxwell said, turning off the handheld computer and putting it away. "I guess the only option then is to search for them the old fashioned way."

He dropped the hoverboard to a lower altitude, looking around at the city below.

"See anything?" he asked Amy.

"Nothing that we want to meet up with." she replied. "Hey, head in that direction."

"Okay," Maxwell said, adjusting the hoverboard's course. "Why that way?"

"That was the direction Sonic went." Amy replied.

"You know, you certainly can't seem to stay away from Sonic." Maxwell noted.

"Of course, I'm his girlfriend." Amy replied.

"He doesn't seem to think so." Maxwell said.

"He's just being modest." Amy assured him.

"You do realize that if we were to go in this direction to find Sonic, he's already miles ahead of us, right?" Maxwell said.

"Right." Amy agreed. "So we need to go faster."

"Okay, here we go." Maxwell said.

"How fast can this thing go, anyway?" Amy asked, as Maxwell braced himself for the acceleration soon to come.

"At Sonic speeds." Maxwell replied with a grin.

And with that, the board shot forward, rapidly approaching the speed of sound.

* * *

"Knuckles, we gotta land now." Tails said wearily, panting and wiping sweat from his brow as they continued to sink lower.

"No, no, keep going!" Knuckles urged, lifting his feet as the city below them rose up towards them to meet them. "We're still above that robotropolis! We gotta keep going until we reach the end!"

"I don't think there _is _an end!" Tails pressed. "It's just robot city as far as the eye can see!"

"Well I say there _is _an end!" Knuckles argued, annoyed.

"And I say if we don't land soon, we'll land anyway when I crash from exhaustion!" Tails argued, unable to keep his twin tails spinning at the fast rate they had, and continuing to sink.

Knuckles hesitated for a moment. "Oh alright, land." he said grudgingly.

They landed on top of a nearby skyscraper. Tails collapsed onto his belly to rest, exhausted.

"Knuckles," he began, "I hate to say it, but you're pretty heavy."

"Oh, thank you, Tails." Knuckles said sarcastically, walking over to the roof ledge and peering down at the ground below. "Looks like we're in some kind of technological district of the city."

"Knuckles, it's a city populated by robots, what do you expect?" Tails asked, annoyed.

"No, I mean it." Knuckles said. "There's by far more technology here than elsewhere in the city, at least, what I've seen of it." he paused, stopping to think for a moment. "I gotta check this out." he said, climbing up on the ledge of the roof.

"Wait, I gotta rest some more still." Tails said, still panting as he forced himself up onto his knees.

"Fine, you stay here and rest." Knuckles said hotly. "But I'm going. Come along if you must, but don't bother to ask me to wait up, 'cause I won't."

And with that, he jumped from the building rooftop, gliding over to the roof of another, shorter, skyscraper across the street.

"Knuckles!" Tails exclaimed, getting up and heading to the edge of the roof. "Hey! You're just going to leave me here?"

But of course, Knuckles didn't hear him. Or if he did, didn't bother to reply.

"Great." Tails grumbled. "Guess I'm on my own now. So now what?"

An idea wasn't long in coming. He could see that Knuckles was right; this part of the city did seem more technological oriented. Stacks of crates containing brand-spanking new technology were piled everywhere. And virtually unguarded too. And what guards there were didn't seem to be too challenging, nothing Tails couldn't handle if he got on their wrong side.

So, he should be free to go down there and check things out. He probably could find parts Maxwell would need when they started building the emerald super charger to create the Super Emerald so they all could go home. And the sooner they have the machine, the sooner they can go home to their reality.

Liking the idea, and feeling adequately rested, Tails took flight, lowering himself down to the street below...

* * *

Rouge flew on and on. All she saw was more and more robotizied metropolis.

"Hmpf." she grunted to herself. "Typical of Eggman to build a dirty city. Filthy, filthy, filthy. You'd think he'd have enough sense to build a cleaning robot every now and then."

What bugged her more, though, was the fact that there was nothing around that she could see that interested her. Nothing big, shiny, pretty, and most of all, valuable.

"What's a girl to do in this place?" Rouge asked, annoyed. "At least in our reality you could actually find something _nice _for a change if you flew far enough."

So she flew on. She didn't really know what to do anymore, but flying sounded better than landing somewhere in that technological mess. Being a loner, she didn't stop and think about the others she had left behind either. As far as she was concerned, they can look after themselves for the moment. Right now, she felt like looking around to get a reward or two for her hard work before finding the others to tag along with them to go home.

Which lead her back to her first problem. There wasn't any such rewards lying around.

"What kind of reality is this?" she asked. "Whatever does the me of this universe do for fun? Am I constantly bored? Heck, while I'm thinking of me, how do I dress, for that matter? Do I have my taste? If it wasn't for the fact that it'd be one awkward conversation, I'd hurt me down and find out."

Pretty soon, her flying took her out to sea, where the city suddenly stopped.

"Finally, a change in scenery!" she remarked. "Air's cleaner too. Guess even Eggman is smart enough to leave the ocean alone. Although, if he were given half the chance..."

She froze suddenly when something caught her eye. "Is that..." she asked herself, squinting at it. "Well, I'll be. It is! It's Angel Island! _There's _a place to find something that would interest me."

She flew down and gently landed on the island and looked around.

"Well, everything seems to be the same here." she noted. "Same forests, same crumbling ruins, and so on. No guardian, though. Guess this is my lucky day."

Rubbing her hands together, she walked towards the center of the island where her chief interest would be. Finally, after a little bit of journeying, she found it.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed, finding a certain set of ruins. "The Master Emerald!"

And there it stood, sitting on it's podium, just like it would back home. But that wasn't all, for it wasn't the only emerald around either.

"Well, I'll be." Rouge said. "All seven of the Chaos Emeralds are here too." she looked at each one in turn, sitting on little podium of their own, encircling the Master Emerald. "Who would've thought they'd all be in one place like this? Oh well, it works for me."

She approached the first Chaos Emerald, consequently, the green one. "Now let's see." she said, picking up the emerald. "You are for Maxwell and the gang for getting us home." she slipped the emerald into her pocket. "And the rest of you, are mine to keep!" she went about collecting the emeralds, talking to them as she went. "You are going to get me a new wardrobe." she said to the next emerald she collected. "You, more makeup, the expensive, hard-to-get, kind. You, a nice, big, mansion! And you, hmm, well, they say Chaos Emeralds make for great batteries, maybe you'll provide the power for that nice new home so I don't have to worry about the electric bill. But _you_ will pay for the water bill. And finally you, I'll keep, just to annoy Knuckles with." she then turned to the Master Emerald, her arms full of Chaos Emeralds. "And _you, _big boy...um...gee, what's expensive enough to buy with a Master Emerald, anyway?"

"You could use it to pay your medical bills." a voice said from near her.

"Medical bills?" Rouge repeated, not fully realizing she wasn't alone anymore. "What medical bills?"

She turned to face the direction of the voice, and gasped, dropping the Chaos Emeralds ladened in her arms with a clatter.

"The medical bills you're gonna get once I'm through with you." the voice said again, as the figure it belong to approached Rouge. "That is, of course, _if _you live."

* * *

When Sonic escaped the predicament he and his friends were in, he didn't keep running in that direction. Instead, he turned back to help clear a path for his friend, accelerating to his top speed and spin-dashing his way through the armada of robots. When he reached the center, he quickly skidded to a stop.

"Okay guys," he said, looking behind him to double check he had paved an adequate path through the robots. "let's get going before...huh?"

He found the are empty and void of his friends.

"They left without me?" he asked. "Huh, some friends they are!"

Meanwhile, two robots used Sonic's temporary distraction to begin sneaking up on him. But it proved useless when Sonic suddenly turned and sped away, leaving the two robots to smack into each other.

"I'd better go track them down!" he said to himself distractedly as he sped along, unaware how many robots were trying to grab him and constantly missing. "In this wild and crazy universe, who knows what kind of trouble they could get into? They might need my help!"

Spin-dashing again, he bore a hole into the wall that surrounded the fortress and hopped out it, speeding along the cluttered streets of the robot metropolis. He looked all around as he did so, looking for any sign at all of his friends. But he saw no trace of Maxwell, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, or even Rouge. Still, not being the quitting type, he searched on, getting ever more distracted as he went faster and further.

This was probably how he missed the foot that suddenly stuck out a nearby alley until too late. Falling flat on his face and sliding several feet due to his pent up momentum, he groaned, and picked himself up.

"Alright, now who did that?" he asked, brushing dirt off of him.

He felt a breeze suddenly slip past him, gone just as quickly as it came.

"That's strange." he muttered. "I haven't felt a breeze at all out here until now."

"There's a reason for that, y'know." a voice said from beside him.

Sonic whirled around, going onto the defensive. But not even he was ready for what he saw.

"What the..." he said, backing up.

The figure only followed him, making sure the distance between them remained the same.

"You gotta watch where you're going by the way." the figure said. "Never know when someone might try and trip you."

"Er..." Sonic said, very unsure how to react to this.

"Sheesh, all things considered, I would've thought you'd have _something _to say." the figure continued, rolling his eyes. "I know you better than that, y'know."

Sonic finally found his voice, giving the figure a puzzled look. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Who do you think?" the figure asked. "I'm you."


	9. Mirror, Mirror

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... ;)

C h a p t e r E i g h t

M i r r o r, M i r r o r

Sonic had seen some pretty weird things in his life. Big, flying, egg-shaped spaceships, a super powerful being made out of water that ate Chaos Emeralds, space colonies that could destroy whole planets, aliens, hedgehogs coming back from the dead, robot doubles, visitors from other dimensions, and so on.

But none of that could compare to this.

Sonic was looking at...well...Sonic, almost like one looking in a mirror. The difference was that the reflection could move, act, and think on his own accord, and wasn't contained to a glass rectangle only a foot or so wide. There were probably other differences, too, like the fact that this mirror Sonic's blue color was a shade darker, but still so similar that both Sonics would have to be standing side by side in order to see the difference.

But other than that, they were the same.

"So you're me, huh?" Sonic asked, still unsure what to make of this situation.

"And you me." the other Sonic replied.

"Uh-huh..." Sonic said slowly. "So...now what?"

"Now, I arrest you, by order of Emperor Robotnik." the other Sonic replied cooly. "So what do you have to say to that?"

"How about...bye!" Sonic said, and zoomed away.

The other Sonic sighed, and gave pursuit.

Meanwhile, Sonic was chuckling. "Heh-heh, left him in my dust." he remarked to himself.

"Oh really?" asked the other Sonic as he suddenly matched Sonic's pace beside him.

"What..." Sonic began to say, but was cut off when the other Sonic suddenly moved to bump into Sonic.

Sonic quickly leapt over the other Sonic and resumed running. He glanced over at his apparent enemy.

"Need more juice." he deduced, and quickened his pace.

He quickly found, spending the next several moments adjusting his speed at random, that the enemy Sonic could match whatever speed he could do.

"Okay, so I can't outrun you." Sonic said aloud. "But can I outmaneuver you?"

And with that, he made an abrupt u-turn, now traveling in the opposite direction. Admittedly, the enemy Sonic didn't see this coming, but compensated far quicker than he would've liked. Sonic tired it again, this time sharply turning right. But this time the enemy Sonic saw the move coming, and followed.

"C'mon, is that the best you can do?" the enemy quipped.

"No." Sonic said with a grin.

He suddenly changed course, gathering speed, and ran up the side of a nearby skyscraper. Reaching it's roof, he pushed himself off into the air. Sailing for several feet, he landed on a nearby skyscraper and continued running, jumping to the next roof every time he reached the roof's ledge.

Looking behind him, though, he saw that the other Sonic had managed to follow, and had merely lost momentum, momentum he was quickly regaining.

"Sheesh, you're worse than Metal Sonic!" Sonic proclaimed.

But he had another idea. He allowed the other Sonic to gain on him, until he was almost directly behind him, then deliberately jumped off the next roof they came to and out into the open air. Aiming to fall to the ground this time, Sonic fell, doing his best to control the fall. Seeing a streetlight, he grabbed it to stop his fall, swinging up and over it once, and then twice.

A few feet away, he saw that his double had done likewise with another streetlight. Satisfied, he waited until he reached the peak of his next, third, swing over the streetlight, and let go, sailing up into the air. His double, watching him, did the same. They hit the ground together, and resumed running. However, while the other Sonic went one way, Sonic traveled the other way, going as fast as he could.

"Ha!" Sonic cried out victoriously, "He may have all my moves, but he's not smarter than me!"

Then a fist suddenly swung out at Sonic's head. With a smack, Sonic flipped over twice, before hitting the ground, his momentum causing him to bounce several times before sliding to a halt, unconscious.

The other Sonic came to stand over the fallen hedgehog, flexing the fist he had used to hit his double. "At least I watch where I'm going." he quipped.

* * *

"Seeing that you are Sonic's alleged girlfriend," Maxwell began as they continued flying on his hoverboard, "Do _you _see any sign of him?"

"No." Amy admitted. "But where would he go?"

"Maybe he's already doubled back to find out where we all went." Maxwell suggested.

"Maybe." Amy admitted.

The hoverboard flew through another cloud of pollution streaming out from a smokestack. They both gagged on the foul fumes.

"Can't you avoid those?" Amy asked, annoyed. "That's the third cloud of pollution we've flown through!"

"I can't help it!" Maxwell said in his defense. "It's all over the place at these altitudes!"

"Then let's fly higher!" Amy proclaimed. "Anything to stay away from those horrid clouds of pollution!"

The hoverboard suddenly sputtered, then sank lower.

"I said higher, not lower!" Amy exclaimed.

Maxwell fiddled with his eyepiece for a moment. "It's not me that's doing it!" he said, as the hoverboard shuttered again, and sank even lower. "I think that last cloud of pollution did something to it!"

"So what's that mean?" Amy asked.

"It means we're going down, and I have little control over the board." Maxwell replied.

They looked at each other, then down at the ground they were rapidly accelerating towards. Amy started to scream, clutching Maxwell tightly around the waist. Ignoring the grasp and Amy's yells ringing in his ears, Maxwell quickly used his feet to swing the board into a more level position. They glided the rest of the way to the ground, bouncing once, then sliding gently to a stop.

It was only then that Amy stopped screaming. Looking around she blushed at her overreaction. "I guess it wasn't that bad, was it?" she asked.

"No, it wasn't." Maxwell said, getting off the board and opening a small panel. "Don't worry, it shouldn't take me long to fix this." he pulled out his portable computer and scanned the board, attempting to pinpoint the problem.

As Amy waited, she looked around the empty street they landed in. "At least it seems we're alone." she remarked.

She turned to look behind her, just in case, and was surprised to see someone standing directly behind her. Yelping in fright, she stumbled backwards, and tripped on Maxwell's kneeling form. They both crashed to the ground.

Maxwell recovered first, looking up to see...

"Amy?" he said, surprised.

And so it was, but she was differently dressed. This outfit, a two-piece, was more revealing, and colored black. She wore many gold bracelets on her wrists and ankles, and more a matching chain around her neck, as well as matching clips in her quills, which this Amy wore in a more mussed manner. An odd symbol was tattooed to one shoulder, and she carried a battered and scratched Piko Piko Hammer.

She silently approached Maxwell, who started to backup. The Amy who had been riding with Maxwell on the hoverboard had gotten back up now, and looked shocked.

"This is weirder than seeing to different versions of Eggman." she noted.

The other Amy seemed shocked to see a double of herself as well. "What kind of trickery is this?" she demanded. She saw the handheld computer still in Maxwell's hand, and glared at it accusingly. "You're behind it, aren't you?" she asked.

"No, see..." Maxwell started to explain.

But he was cut short when the other Amy swung her hammer at Maxwell's head. Maxwell quickly ducked, tucking himself into a roll, and rolled out of the other Amy's range.

"Hey, you stop that!" Amy said, standing in the way of her double as she moved to go after Maxwell. "I don't want to start a fight!"

"But that's the idea!" the other Amy said. "So stay out of my way!"

She swung her hammer at her double, but Amy quickly pulled out hers and swung it as well. The two hammers clattered harmlessly off each other.

"If you're really my double in this universe, then you're certainly a _dark _double!" Amy observed.

"Way to go, genius!" Dark Amy said, and swung again.

Amy deflected the blow again. "Look, we don't want to cause any trouble!" Amy persisted. "We were just trying to escape from Eggman when..."

Dark Amy swung her hammer again at her double. "That means you're against Emperor Robotnik!" she roared. "And if you're against Robotnik, then you're my enemy!"

"You're on _Eggman's _side?" Amy said, bewildered, continuing to block the blows. "Then that Alternate Eggman wasn't lying when he said Sonic..."

"Sonic! _Sonic!_" Dark Amy screamed, her fury rising. "Don't talk to me about Sonic, that murdering, lying, cheating, betraying, backstabbing..." she let out a roar of fury, and redoubled her attack on Amy.

The two Amy's battled on for a few moments, moving away from the hoverboard and Maxwell. The dark red hedgehog used this chance to sneak up behind Dark Amy and slap her upside the head with his handheld computer. He hit with enough force that Dark Amy crumbled into a heap, unconscious.

Amy, who was just starting to get into the heat of the battle, froze, mid-swing, surprised. Maxwell quickly finished his repairs to the hoverboard and hopped onto it as it started to hover again.

"C'mon, let's get out of here." he said, extending one hand to help Amy up onto the board. "Before she wakes up again."

Amy, still looking a bit stunned, accepted the hand, and climbed onto the board. Quickly, they flew away from the spot of the incident.

"You know, judging from what she said to you about our alternate reality counterparts..." Maxwell began, "...we can safely presume that we're all evil in this universe."

"And won't take to outsiders very nicely." Amy added, looking back down to where her own double still lay...

* * *

Luck seemed to be on Tails's side for the moment. The immediate area of the street he landed in was empty for the moment. The only guard robot had gone on around the corner, where it couldn't see Tails. However, just to be cause, he watched the area, just in case the robot was going to come back. when it was clear that it wasn't, Tails headed towards the closest stack of technology-containing crates.

He whistled as he saw some of the labels. There was some pretty enhanced stuff in some of these crates. And they were just lying there, virtually unguarded. Apparently, stealing wasn't a big problem in this universe, which Tails found odd, but he wasn't going to bite the hand that feeds him.

Lots of the crates apparently contained technology Tails had never heard of, and he really wanted to stop and open the crates up to examine them, but reminded himself that he came here to get possibly needed supplies that Maxwell could use to rebuild the emerald super charger so they could go home.

One crate was label energy converters. Tails knew that a couple of these would be needed, and decided to take a few things from this crate first. He examined it briefly so he was confident he knew how to open it, then unlocked the latch, and undid it. Then, squeezing his fingers under the lip of the crate's lid, he lifted it open.

He immediately saw the trip-wire cleverly concealed within the crate. It was rigged! Shocked, and forgetting the energy converter, Tails let the lid slam shut, turned, and started to run. Seconds later, the crate exploded. The blast knocked Tails off his feet, pushing him to the ground, but he was otherwise unharmed.

Alarms started to ring. Tails reasoned an explosion like that would be hard to miss, and decided he had overextended his stay here. He started forward, only to have his path blocked off when two robots and a fox rounded the corner. The fox ground to a halt when he saw Tails, looking stunned.

Tails saw why. He knew he had a double in this universe.

He just didn't expect to see him.

"Seize him!" Dark Tails exclaimed, recovering from his shock.

The two robots surged forward. Tails yelped, and moved backwards a few feet to put more distance between him and the robots before retaliating. He swung his dual tails at one robot, knocking it's feet out from under it. He then planted a kick in the other robot's chest. As that robot fell over, Tails stepped back a few feet, again to put distance between him at the robots, and backed into two more robots that had snuck up behind him.

"Hey!" Tails exclaimed as the two new robots quickly grabbed him by the arms. "Let go!"

He fought against the two robots holding him, but to no avail. Dark Tails casually walked up to Tails. Now that he was closer, Tails got a good look at his double. They generally looked alike, except this Tails wore a headband over his head, and similar bands on both of his tails, the number on one tail unequal to the other.

His yellow fur was more ruffled, and long strands of fur fell over Dark Tails eyes. he had a prideful look, and stared at his double with snotty discontent.

"I don't know who you are..." Dark Tails began, "...but no one steals from _my _equipment and gets away with it unharmed!"

Tails gulped, as Dark Tails walked away, motioning for the robots holding Tails to follow. Something told him he wasn't going to like this...


	10. Amanda

C h a p t e r N i n e

A m a n d a

Sonic decided he must have gotten hit in the head pretty hard, because he suddenly found it very hard to focus on anything. He was drifting in and out of consciousness at random, and definitely not under his control. He caught glimpses of various things every time he became conscious enough to open his eyes, but not really enough to figure out where he was. All he knew was that he was being moved somewhere.

Once he caught a rather pretty view of one of the many cities that apparently covered the planet in this universe, which was rather odd, considering that those cities were breeding grounds for pollution, corruption, and trouble. Another time he caught a glimpse of some kind of chamber, probably a room in some kind of craft, which was shaking gently.

But this didn't tell him where he was being taken, which was the question that was bugging him the most. And, his mind felt so rattled that he couldn't focus on it long enough to figure it out. Finally, after what had to be several hours of this, Sonic's mind finally start to pull itself together, and the light, but pressing, ache his head had been generating began to dissipate. He awoke once again with the sensation of something wet lying on his forehead.

Moaning, Sonic pressed a hand to his forehead, and found a wet cloth had been laid there. Pulling it off, he opened his eyes, looking around. He was lying on a cot in a small, sparsely furnished, bedroom. It was dimly lit. In fact, the only light there seemed to be was the yellowish glow from a small lamp on a bedside table, and a faint glow from a pair of windows next to the bed.

Windows. Curious as to where he was, he looked out the window to try and determine where he was. All he saw was stars, however. Sonic was surprised at first, but then guessed he probably could've been out long enough for night to fall.

Still, he couldn't stay here, wherever here was. He had friends to find, and an alternate reality to return to. He sat up, but his head spun suddenly, forcing him to clamp the wet rag still his hand back on his head.

"Oh, you're awake!" a voice suddenly said, and he heard footsteps coming towards him. a gentle hand suddenly reached forward and pushed him back down into a lying position. "Easy." the voice, probably a female's, soothed. "You've got quite a bump on the head."

Sonic knew this, he could feel it under the rag. "Where am I?" he croaked out, his voice sounding a little weak, more than he would've liked.

"Never mind that now, how are you feeling?" the voice asked. Whoever it was, took the rag from him.

"Could be better." Sonic admitted, squeezing his eyes shut to try and lessen the throb his head was producing. "Still, I feel better than I did earlier."

"Good, that means the medicine I gave you is working."

"What medicine?"

"Just pain killers and something for that bump. Luckily, it's not anything worse than that. But Sonic really walloped you."

"But I'm Sonic." Sonic objected without thinking, then, mentally scolding himself, added, "Wait, you mean the other Sonic, don't you?"

"Yes." the voice said, wiping at Sonic's forehead.

The motion soothed the throb, and finally Sonic was willing to open his eyes again. Before him was a female hedgehog, with her quills pulled back into a ponytail. Both her quills and fur were a cerulean color. Sonic squinted his eyes at her, but couldn't identify her.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You mean you don't know?" the hedgehog asked, looking surprised.

"No." Sonic admitted. "Should I?"

"Apparently not." the hedgehog admitted. "Pity." she sighed, and said. "I'm Amanda."

"Amanda, huh?" Sonic said, sitting up again, this time more hesitantly. "Amanda who?"

"You don't need to know."

"Really? Who said I shouldn't know?"

"Me, for one. Sonic for another."

"The other Sonic."

"Yes."

Sonic studied her for a moment. "What's with this other Sonic, anyway?" he asked.

"Well, he's you, in a sense." Amanda replied. "Although, there are notable differences."

"I got that." Sonic said, rubbing the bump on his head. "I don't particularly like him."

"The feelings mutual, I assure you." Amanda said.

"I got that too." Sonic said. He looked around the room for a moment, before looking at Amanda again. "So how do you fit into this?"

"Sonic wants you alive." Amanda said. "And physically fit. My job was to insure that, although he had little to fear."

"Can we stop calling him Sonic?" Sonic asked. "It's throwing my mind for a loop every time. You know, I share his name."

"I know." Amanda said. "That's why you were brought here."

"For what?" Sonic asked, repositioning himself so his legs dangled off the bed.

"Interrogation." Amanda said. "He knows you're from a different universe. He wants to learn more about it."

"Oh, I'll bet he does." Sonic grumbled. He got up. "Well, thanks for the help, but I gotta be going now." he headed for what he presumed was the door.

"You shouldn't leave." Amanda said, going to stop him.

"I know, I know, I've got a bump on the head." Sonic said, waving her off. "Trust me, that's not going to stop me."

"I'm not talking about the bump." Amanda said, following Sonic. "Perhaps I should've said that you _can't _leave."

Sonic approached the door, only to find it was locked. He struggled with the latch for a moment, but it wouldn't budge.

"See?" Amanda said. "Sonic left explicit directions that you were to _stay here_."

Sonic glared at her. "What are you, his sidekick or something?" he asked, turning to head back to the bed.

"No, I'm his girlfriend."

Sonic froze. "Say what?" he asked.

"I'm his girlfriend." Amanda repeated.

"Not Amy? Not to say Amy's _my _girlfriend or anything, just...not anybody like that?"

"Amy who?"

"I'll take that as a no." Sonic flopping back down on the bed. "Great. I suppose you're here to keep an eye on me too, huh?"

"You aren't supposed to know that." Amanda said.

"Didn't take a genius to figure it out, though." Sonic pointed out.

"True." Amanda admitted.

Sonic shook his head. "How can you be with him?" he asked. "I mean, sure, he's got way past cool looks, but he's kinda more...how shall I say it..._bad?_"

"Not bad, he just has more power than you." Amanda corrected.

"So you don't like me, then." Sonic guessed.

"I see you as someone a bit weaker than him, if that's what you mean." Amanda said. "That's not to say you don't have potential, though."

"So I take it you're bad in this reality too." Sonic said, realizing there was no escaping it.

"That's a relative term." Amanda pointed out.

"Oh, I'm sure you don't think you're bad." Sonic said, exasperated. "But you are."

"If you say so." Amanda said.

"But if you really are bad..." Sonic said, sitting up to look at her, "...then why are you being so nice to me?"

"Perhaps there's more to being 'bad', as you put it, than you think." Amanda said.

Sonic frowned, and got up, starting to pace. This conversation wasn't getting him anywhere. He was getting bored by it too, and annoyed at the fact he wasn't moving. Looking around the room, though, it seemed the only ways out would be to break down the door or to break a window. But, doing either could take time.

"Where is my double?" Sonic asked. "You know, the darker of us two Sonics?"

"He left for a period of time to report your capture to Emperor Robotnik." Amanda said.

"So he's an ally to Eggman after all." Sonic muttered to himself, thinking as he paced.

"He also left to give you some time top recover." Amanda went on. "And since going in and out of orbit can take awhile..."

"Wait. Orbit?" Sonic said, alarmed. "Where exactly am I?"

Amanda looked at him blankly for a moment.

"Where's here?" Sonic asked again. "Where has Dark Sonic brought me?"

Amanda was silent for a moment. "To Space Colony ARK, of course." she said simply, like the answer was obvious.

Sonic's eyes widened, and he zipped to the window looking out it. Not only could he stars, which he had presumed was merely a sign that it was night, he could see the sun hanging out there on it's own, and the blue curving shape of the earth below, half of it in shadow.

So much for trying to escape out the window.

* * *

Several levels above the room Sonic was locked in was Space Colony ARK's control room. Standing at the master control panel was figure. Silently, he stood there working on his unknown task, generally ignoring the room around him.

At least, that was how it appeared.

In reality, he was aware of everything that was going on in the room. he could hear the beeps of the various devices working in the room and the tapping sound of his fingers on the keyboard, and he could feel the light being cast from the control room's main display, it's only source of light. He could hear various pipes whirr and beams groan; he even could feel the artificial gravity's telltale shift as it overcompensated one-eight of a gee for a split second.

So, naturally, he knew when the door opened, and someone entered, and he knew exactly who it was before that someone even spoke.

"You know, I don't mind the dark..." the newcomer said airily, "...but wouldn't you work better with the lights on?"

"I prefer that they remain off, please." the figure at the control panel said flatly, not turning away from the panel he worked at.

"Fine." the newcomer said in a tone of annoyance. "Anyway, I'm here to report that our _beloved _captain, Sonic, has departed for Earth. Dramatically, as always."

"Yes, I saw him leave on the sensors." the figure replied.

"What did you think of his cargo?" the newcomer asked. "You saw it, right?"

"Oh, I saw it alright." the figure assured her.

"And?"

"Very interesting. Could possibly explain Eggman's change of policies in our last communique."

"Oh, Emperor Robotnik called, did he?"

"Yes, and asked for the report I sent to him two days ago, like always."

"Little nuisance."

"Agreed, especially as he already called to confirm he had seen that report yesterday." the figure tapped a key decisively before continuing. "But, he is emperor, and he has proven capable of leading the empire. I think, keeping all of that in mind, one can learn to ignore his more trivial flaws."

"If you say so. I'm just glad he tries to stay out of my way."

"Yes, he would make that one of his goals in life."

"And what's that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"Nothing offending, I assure you."

"I thought not, but still, one can never tell with you."

"That is one of my goals in life. Always leave my enemies unsure about me."

"But I'm not your enemy, now am I?"

"Of course not, Rouge."

Dark Rouge grinned, and stepped fully into the room, allowing the door to slide shut behind her. "You know," she said, "I might just make you have to prove that to me."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it's been awhile since you have done anything of the sort."

"I've been busy."

"And I can understand that." Dark Rouge admitted with a shrug. "But still, you've been 'busier' a lot lately, more 'busier' than usual. Are you up to something?"

"If I was, you'd know about it already." the figure replied.

"You aren't lying, are you?"

The figure paused, then side-glanced at Rouge, standing behind him. "Why would I lie to you?" he asked.

"Everyone lies at least once in this world, Lieutenant."

"I don't like that rank."

"I know. But it makes for a great wedge to get you to talk, doesn't it?"

"Well, I am not lying. If I was up to anything significant, I assure you, you would've known about it long before now."

Dark Rouge was silent for a moment. "I note you phrased that reply in such a way that you didn't deny you weren't up to something _altogether_. Just nothing _significant_."

"If you really must know, I'm doing research." the figure said, returning his attention to the control panel.

Dark Rouge frowned. "I've never known you to do research before." she remarked.

"I know." Dark Shadow replied, glancing back at her and grinning slightly. "But every action has a reason, doesn't it?"


	11. All In Vain

C h a p t e r T e n

A l l I n V a i n

With an angry yell, Sonic sped into a spin-dash and rammed the locked door. Several sparks flew, but all Sonic managed to do was scratch the paint off. Finally, he stopped panting, before gearing up to do it again.

"You won't escape." Amanda remarked, who sat on the bed, calmly watching.

"How about I figure that out for myself, okay?" Sonic asked, and again rammed the door with a spin-dash. He made no new progress.

"You know, you and Sonic are more alike than you realize." Amanda remarked.

"Probably why we're doubles." Sonic muttered sarcastically, ramming the door again.

"He's just as stubborn as you are, you know." Amanda said.

"At least I have a reason to be stubborn!" Sonic roared, spin-dashing against the door with all his strength. "I'm a prisoner here!"

"It's only temporary." Amanda assured him. "Once Sonic talks with you, I'm sure things will change."

"I highly doubt that." Sonic said, coming out the spin-dash, again failing, panting. "And can we call your Sonic something else? Like Dark Sonic. That fits."

"How so?" Amanda asked.

"Well, he is a slightly darker color, for one thing." Sonic said, leaning against the door, the one thing keeping him where he was. "And he's bad, for another thing. So his personality is metaphorically darker than mine. So he's Dark Sonic."

"I find that name to be too...judging." Amanda remarked.

Giving up with the door Sonic started to pace the room. "Yeah, well, that's what I'm calling him from here on out." he kicked the bedside table as he walked past it. "I want out of here!"

"You just need to calm down." Amanda said soothingly.

"I don't want to calm down!" Sonic shouted at her. "I'm a prisoner, unable to escape, simply cannot run _anywhere,_ trapped in an alternate reality, separated from my friends, and can't go looking for them! Don't tell me to calm down!"

He huffily turned his back to her. Amanda stood, and gently placed her hands on his shoulder, and started to rub them.

"Calm down." she said again. "Once you do, we can talk further."

Sonic wanted to resist, but the massaging motion Amanda was doing forced him to calm down.

"So," Sonic finally said, seeing that he had nothing else better to do anyway. "You're Dark Sonic's girlfriend."

"Yes." Amanda replied.

"For how long?"

"About a year now."

"Long time."

"Maybe so."

"And he's really an ally to Eggman?"

"More than that, he's the emperor's top captain."

"That's right, Dark Eggman said something about that." Sonic paused to think for a moment. "I wonder what my friends are like in this universe, and if they're actually my friends."

"Ask me." Amanda suggested. "Maybe I know."

"Well, I know you know nothing about Amy."

"That's right."

"How about Maxwell?"

"Never heard of him."

"Okay, then Tails?"

"As in Miles Prower?"

"Yeah."

"He's one of the leading technological producers in the world. He provides Emperor Robotnik with all of the technology he needs."

"Okay, so he's bad too. How about Shadow? Seeing that you've found Space Colony ARK, I presume you know him."

"Yes, he is Emperor Robotnik's first lieutenant."

"So he's bad too. Oh well, we weren't really friends anyway. Maybe allies though." Sonic trailed off for a long moment. "Is there anyone here who's not bad?"

"Like I said, that's a very relative term." Amanda said.

"Okay, then is there any one who lacks power, or is weak, like me?" Sonic amended.

"Not very." Amanda said. "I know of none personally."

Sonic was silent for a moment. "Are you weak?" he asked Amanda.

Amanda gave him an odd look. "No." she said. "Why?"

"It's just that you're nicer than anyone else I've met in this reality." Sonic pointed out.

"You remind me of my Sonic." Amanda said, leaning over his shoulder to look in his face. "That's why."

Sonic was suddenly a little leery of her, and moved away from her. "Okay, maybe it's time for me to do something else." he went back to the door to try and figure out a way to open it.

Amanda, looking a little put out, sat back down on the bed. "You can't open it." she said. "It's locked from the outside in multiple ways. Only Sonic or other authorized personnel can open it. It's also spin-dash proof."

Sonic glanced at her. "You could have told me this sooner." he complained.

"I already tried, you didn't listen." Amanda pointed out.

"You got me to calm down, though." Sonic said, trying to pry the door open with his fingers. He paused and looked at her. "How did you do that, anyway?"

"It's a little trick I learned with Sonic." Amanda replied.

"But that's Dark Sonic." Sonic pointed out. "He's different from me."

"Ah, but like I said, there's more alike about you two than you realize." Amanda said. "I figured the same little tricks that would work on him would work on you, too."

Sonic stared at her for a long moment. "That's kinda creepy." he remarked.

"If you say so." Amanda said.

Sonic rubbed his chin thinking for a moment. "What's my favorite ice cream?" he asked suddenly.

"You don't have one." Amanda replied.

Sonic blinked in surprise at the right answer, then thought up a new question, one sure to stump her. "What's my most embarrassing moment, and how old was I?" he asked.

"When you were at an art museum once with friends, you got bored and started running for the exit, only to slam into what you thought was the exit when it really was a painting that portrayed a life-size version _of_ the exit with everyone watching. You were five at the time."

Sonic stared at her. "That's amazing." he said, stunned.

"Like I said Sonic, I know you better than you think." Amanda said slyly.

* * *

A bright light suddenly blinded Tails, who had just gotten used to the dark and empty warehouse room. Blinking several times to adapt, he looked around and saw Dark Tails standing in the warehouse entrance, his hand still on the light switch. Standing on either side of him like bodyguards were two robots.

Smirking at Tails discomfort, Dark Tails approached his double. "So," he asked, "How are we doing?"

"Could be better." Tails remarked, jerking at the chains that held him suspended in the middle of the room by both hands and feet in a spreadeagle position. "But I guess I'm not going to get many favors here."

"You go that right." Dark Tails said. "I have a great deal of questions for you, and I expect answers to all of them."

"Okay." Tails said, nodding to indicate that he understood.

Dark Tails motioned to the robots, and they went to stand on either side of Tails. Tails got a bad feeling about this.

"Now, first question." Dark Tails began, brushing a strand of fur from his eyes. "Who are you?"

"Miles Prower." Tails replied. "Also known as Tails."

Without warning, the robots suddenly clamped their hands on Tails shoulders, and an electric pulse surged into Tails body. It was low level, but was enough to make Tails's back arch and grit his teeth.

"Lie." Dark Tails said flatly. "_I'm _Miles Prower, also known as Tails."

"I know." Tails said, panting. "I'm from another universe. A parallel universe. I'm your double, so to speak."

The robots grabbed Tails's shoulders again and another current of energy zapped through Tails.

"Another lie, if I'm not too mistaken." Dark Tails remarked.

"Well, you are!" Tails said angrily. "I'm telling you the truth!"

This only earned Tails another zap of electricity.

"Who are you working for?" Dark Tails asked.

"Nobody!" Tails said.

Another zap of energy.

"Maxwell!" Tails answered, grabbing the first name that came to mind. "Maxwell H. Galilei!"

Dark Tails seemed to buy this. "What does the 'H' stand for?" he asked.

"I don't know." Tails replied.

Zap.

"I don't!" Tails said, getting worn down from all of this. "He's said it stands for something different each time! It's always changing! I don't know what the 'H' really stands for!"

Dark Tails was silent for a moment. "What were you doing in my equipment?" he asked.

Tails rolled his eyes for a moment. "I was going to steal some." he admitted.

This was clearly obvious already, so Dark Tails nodded, agreeing. "What parts?"

"I don't know yet, I didn't get to see what you had exactly." Tails said. "Could've been anything."

Again, Dark Tails believed this. "What did you intend to use these parts for?" he asked.

"To build a device that would super charge a Chaos Emerald." Tails replied.

Zap.

"I'm telling the truth!" Tails said. "The only way to go from one universe to another is with a Super Emerald!"

Zap. This time it proved to be too much for Tails, and he let out a yell of agony.

"I've never heard of a Super Emerald." Dark Tails remarked. "And besides, even if that all _was _true, there was no way you could get any emeralds to super charge. They're all safely guarded on Angel Island."

Tails looked up at his captor at this. So that was where the Chaos Emeralds were in this reality.

"Now, about this Maxwell..." Dark Tails began again, but was suddenly cut off when something clattered outside.

Whirling around, Dark Tails looked out the door. Drawing a previously concealed sidearm, he motioned for the robots to stay put, and wandered out the door. Tails, grateful for the reprieve, went limp, breathing deeply to try and calm himself. He was just beginning to succeed when something slammed into one of the robots, knocking it clear over.

Yelping with fright, Tails tried to see what happened when the other robot found the same fate as the other robot. Panicking, Tails began to fight his bindings, thinking that whoever it was couldn't be someone good. But then the person stepped out into light.

"Knuckles!" Tails exclaimed, relieved. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"I'll bet." Knuckles said, grabbing the chains and snapping them with his hands. "Your double isn't exactly a good example to society."

"He is in this society." Tails said, collapsing to his knees when the last chain was broken. "Everything seems to be cruel like this here."

"I've noticed." Knuckles said, picking up Tails and throwing the weary young fox over one shoulder. "I took the chance to go looking around. Not a pretty place. Of course, with Eggman as emperor, I suppose we shouldn't expect any less."

"How did you find me?" Tails asked as Knuckles carried him to the door.

"It was pretty hard to miss that explosion you caused." Knuckles remarked. "I would've come sooner, but the place was crawling with robots after you got captured."

"My double was probably being prepared, in case there were other enemies of his about." Tails reasoned. "Where is my double, anyway?"

"Lured him over to the other side of the warehouse, away from where we're going." Knuckles said, heading out the door and breaking into a run.

"And where is that, exactly?" Tails asked.

"Nowhere for now." Knuckles said. "Just someplace remotely safe. But once you've got your strength back, we're going to Angel Island."

"That's where the Chaos Emeralds are." Tails mentioned weakly.

"Yeah, I heard." he shook his head. "Dang it, kid." he said. "It's bad enough that someone's willing to torture someone your age just for information he doesn't even believe, but yourself torturing _yourself?_ I don't think Eggman would swoop so low."

"I hate my double." Tails remarked idly, his eyes drooping as his sore body sought sleep.

"I'll bet my double's not exactly likable either, kid." Knuckles said as he ran.

* * *

"This is getting really dull." Amy noted as she looked down at the city as they flew over it.

"I think we're getting somewhere." Maxwell persisted, holding out his handheld computer as he flew the hoverboard. "I've got a lead that could be someone from our universe. Dunno who, but if they're from our universe..."

"You've been saying that for the past hour." Amy grumbled. "And we've been flying in circles for even longer."

"I know." Maxwell said. "This isn't exactly easy."

Amy rubbed at tired eyes. "I'm tired of looking around like this." she went on. "We're not getting anywhere, and I'm just exhausting my eyes trying to see through all this pollution. Pretty soon, I'm going to be falling asleep standing up."

"That would not be a good thing to do while riding a hoverboard." Maxwell said, working with his handheld computer. He frowned, and squinted at one reading.

"Something exciting should happen." Amy said. "Just to mix things up a bit."

A loud boom suddenly rang out from above them, startling Amy.

"Like that!" she said, her quills standing on end in fright.

Maxwell looked around. "That was a ship decelerating." he said. "Probably just re-entered the atmosphere."

"So?" Amy asked.

"Well, for one, I wonder what it was doing out in space in the first place." Maxwell said, glancing at his handheld computer as it beeped. "And for another, it's coming straight at us."

"Say _what?_" Amy said, alarmed.

"Don't worry, I think I might have an idea." Maxwell said, returning the handheld computer back to it's pocket and adjusted the eyepiece he wore. "You know that I was searching for the others by scanning the slight differences in their atoms than everyone else's in this universe, right?"

"Right." Amy replied, looking around for this alleged ship nervously.

"Well, I didn't find anyone else from our universe, but I did find someone else who should interest you." Maxwell said, bracing himself, as the ship started to come into view, piercing through the thick pollution. "Now hang now, this will be rough."

Amy quickly tightened her hold on Maxwell's waist, watching the ship rapidly come closer. Maxwell suddenly turned the hoverboard away from the oncoming ship in a banking turn, letting it slide past. And fly past it did, seemingly unaware of the little hoverboard, as it sped past dangerously close with a loud roar. Left trembling in it's wake, Maxwell turned the hoverboard into the craft's slipstream, and sped forward, matching the craft's speeds.

Amy squeezed her eyes shut as Maxwell brought the hoverboard very close to the craft's hull, a very dangerous maneuver at these speeds. One wrong move, and they could wreak, with disastrous results. However, the end was result was far from that. The hoverboard merely landed on the ship's hull, right next to it's cockpit, with a gentle thud. Something within the hoverboard's mechanisms clicked, and Amy presumed Maxwell had done something to latch the board to the speeding ship.

They both relaxed. Maxwell did a double check to make sure everything was done correctly and that nothing would go wrong without warning. He then, cautiously leaned forward and peered into the cockpit through it's windshield. Seeing what he saw, he leaned back.

"What?" Amy asked. "Who's in there?"

"Someone you'll recognize." Maxwell said, and motioned for her to look through a smaller window that was near her.

Amy did, looking to the front of the craft where someone sat in a chair, working with the controls.

"That's Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, recognizing the blue hedgehog.

"Or rather, Sonic's double in this universe." Maxwell said. "My scanner detected a five percent atomic difference between this Sonic, and our Sonic."

"Okay, but why are we hitching a ride with Dark Sonic?" Amy asked, puzzled.

"I'm acting on a hunch." Maxwell replied. "A hunch that says that Dark Sonic knows a thing or two about the situation we've gotten ourselves in..."


	12. Blackmail

C h a p t e r E l e v e n

B l a c k m a i l

"Oh boy, we're going around in a complete circle, alright." Amy remarked as she noticed that the ship they rode was heading back towards Eggman's fortress. "Ending up right back where we started."

"Let's hope it's worth it." Maxwell remarked, monitoring the ship's progress with his handheld computer. "We're slowing down. Dark Sonic is going to be landing the craft soon."

Maxwell's prediction quickly came true. The ship slowed drastically, coming to hover over a small landing pad within the four walls that surrounded the fortress. Dropping slowly, it landed with a gentle thump. Two robots exited a small hatch in the side of the fortress, and approached. They did not see Maxwell and Amy, as the ship had landed so that the two hitchhikers faced away from the fortress, out of the robots line of sight.

After a moment or two, Dark Sonic opened the hatch facing the fortress, and stepped out.

"Ah, I can see Eggman already knows I'm here, if he's taken the trouble to send me an escort." he remarked.

The robots did not reply. They merely waited for Dark Sonic to travel towards and into the fortress, before they moved to tag along on either side of Dark Sonic. Maxwell quickly detached the hoverboard from the ship, and brought it down to land on solid ground. He motioned for Amy to hop off, who did. Maxwell then followed, grabbing the hoverboard and triggering a control and collapsed it into a rectangle shape in the same movement.

Strapping his board to his back, Maxwell motioned for Amy to follow him, and they headed towards the fortress, slipping inside behind Dark Sonic and the two robotic guards. Quietly, they followed the group in silence and stealth. Fortunately, it seemed very little was happening in the fortress, so there were few other robots, and Dark Sonic and the two robots did not seem to realize that they were being followed.

Finally, they arrived at the entrance to Eggman's throne room. The two robots open the door and let Dark Sonic enter first, then the two droids stepped inside the doorway, leaving it open. This allowed Amy and Maxwell to watch and listen to what was going on, but remain within the hallway, unseen.

"Ah! Sonic!" Eggman exclaimed, looking up from the device he was tinkering with at the moment. "I thought you would be coming soon! Here to report?"

"Yes, my liege." Dark Sonic replied, stepping up to stand before Eggman's throne and bowing.

"Ick." Amy remarked to herself, disgusted at the sight of seeing anyone treat Eggman like that.

"And?" Eggman prompted.

"I have done as you asked." Dark Sonic continued. "I have defeated and captured the false Sonic as you requested. He currently being held prisoner at the space colony, and it under guard."

"Good, Good!" Eggman cried happily, rubbing his hands together. "That takes care of that little pest. Be sure he stays there, would you please?"

"Yes, my liege." Dark Sonic replied. "On one condition."

"Condition?" Eggman repeated, frowning. "I didn't give you permission to make any conditions."

"Ah, but if you had been the _real _Eggman, you would've known that's how I do all of my business with the empire." Dark Sonic remarked with a smirk.

Eggman gave the double a worried look, and Amy and Maxwell exchanged glances from their hiding place.

"Oh yes, Eggman." Dark Sonic continued. "I _know _you're from a parallel universe, and that you aren't the Eggman who _should _be sitting in that throne." he stood, and glared at Eggman. "And I know of quite a few people who would be really unhappy if they found out the Eggman acting as their emperor wasn't who he said he was."

"Have you told anyone?" Eggman asked, alarmed he could be overthrown due to this one detail.

"Just those working closest to me, and they won't tell a soul unless I say so." Dark Sonic replied idly. "And if I don't get what I want..."

"You wouldn't." Eggman said, but he was starting to pale.

"Give me one good reason why not, Eggman." Dark Sonic replied. "An emperor is only an emperor when he has something to rule. And with just one slip of the tongue, I could take that title away from you, Eggman."

"This is blackmail!" Eggman cried out.

"So it is." Dark Sonic agreed. "So now it's up to you. If you want to remain emperor, will you listen to my terms?"

Eggman sighed, rubbing his head. It didn't take a genius to see that he had no choice but agree. "What are your terms?" he finally asked wearily.

"First, I want a promotion." Dark Sonic said.

"A promotion?" Eggman repeated, frustrated. "What's higher than captain, besides emperor?"

"I don't know. Make up a post for all I care." Dark Sonic said. "Second, I lay claim to the rights to do whatever I want to my double, the good Sonic."

"And what will you do with him?" Eggman asked.

"Torture him." Dark Sonic replied. "See what I can learn about this alternate reality he comes from."

"Why that no good..." Amy began pulling out her Piko Piko Hammer and starting into the room, before Maxwell quickly stopped her.

"Fine." Eggman said with the wave of his hand. He clearly didn't care what happened to Sonic.

"Third, I want the plans to whatever device allowed you to come here to this universe and swap places with our Eggman." Dark Sonic concluded.

Eggman glanced at his blackmailing captain. "I don't have them with me." he said.

"You're a genius, Eggman. Redraw them." Dark Sonic said.

"Fine, but I must know, why do you want them?" Eggman asked.

"Well, since you've already established your, or should I say the Eggman of this universe, empire here, and are agreeing to my terms, I figured I could work at establishing my own empire over in that other universe." Dark Sonic replied with a smirk.

Amy gasped, and Maxwell quickly pulled her away, hearing all he needed to hear.

"This changes everything." he muttered, as they hurried down the twisting hallways, looking for a way to escape. "Not only do we need to gt back to our universe, but stop Dark Sonic from taking it over."

"This just isn't a good day." Amy remarked, looking worried.

"Agreed, we've gotten in quite a mess." Maxwell said. He shook his head. "We need to rescue Sonic as well, but we don't have much to go on. Do _you _know of any space colonies?"

Amy nodded instantly. "As a matter of fact, I do." she replied.

* * *

It was quiet in the fortress's hanger bay, until Amy whacked down the entry doors with her Piko Piko Hammer.

"There, I opened the door." Amy said, leaning on the handle of the hammer.

Maxwell looked up from where he had been trying to hack into the electronic lock. "I suppose that works." he admitted, and hurried into the room, going down the aisle of parked ships.

"Why are we here, anyway?" Amy asked, following.

"We need a ship." Maxwell said. "A hoverboard isn't going to work for our purposes forever. Not to mention, a ship's faster, and it can go where a hoverboard won't."

"So we're stealing one." Amy said.

"Problem with that?" Maxwell asked.

"No, just stating the obvious." Amy replied.

Maxwell paused before one ship, similar to the one Dark Sonic had flown. "This one should do." he said, opening the hatch, and climbing.

As Amy followed and closed the hatch behind her, Maxwell sat down at the controls and studied them briefly. "Okay, looks straightforward enough." he said, tapping controls.

The ship roared to life, and slowly lifted into the air. Maxwell studied the controls a moment longer.

"This should be forward." he said to himself, pressing the control.

The ship suddenly lurched backwards, throwing them forward, and nearly crashed into a wall.

"Or not." Maxwell said.

"Try the opposite control!" Amy exclaimed, annoyed, sitting herself in a seat as well.

Maxwell did, this time finding the right control, and was quickly able to reorient the ship to point towards the hanger bay exit so they could fly out. Only one problem. It was blocked by the big and heavy hanger bay doors. Maxwell frowned, then worked at the controls some more.

"I can remotely open the door." Maxwell said as he worked. "But it's protected by a multitude of security codes. It'll take a little while to hack through."

"I have a better idea." Amy said, seeing one control that stood out from the others, and going to press it.

"No, don't!" Maxwell exclaimed, seeing what she was about to do.

Too late. Amy pressed the control, and the ship's weapons fired three times before Maxwell stopped Amy. All three shots hit the door, and blasted it open. Alarms went off all over the facility.

Maxwell frowned, and turned to glare at Amy. "You just gave away our position." he grumbled.

"I know." Amy said, clearly not caring. "So are we going to go and rescue my Sonic or not?"

Maxwell sighed, and gunned the ship out the hole they had made in the hanger doors, flying high over the robotizied city below...

* * *

In an abandoned part of the city, Knuckles and Tails resided at a campfire they had made from scraps of wood and newspapers, stopping to rest. Tails lay near the fire, sleeping fitfully, curled into a ball. Despite his close proximity to the fire, the young fox was shivering uncontrollably.

Knuckles sat on the other side of the fire, watching. His face was expressionless, hiding his concern for his young two-tailed friend. It had been his hope that they would rest and await for Tails to recover from being tortured by his double so they could head on to Angel Island and get a Chaos Emerald.

The only problem was that Tails wasn't recovering. If anything, he was getting worse. At first, Knuckles thought that the strain of being tortured like Tails had been had reacted badly to the eight-year-old, but now it had become clear that there was something else plaguing Tails. Maybe it was some kind of disease he had picked up. Which wouldn't be too surprising, considering how filthy things in this universe were.

But whatever it was, it was affecting Tails badly, and Knuckles was genuinely worried for him. Unfortunately, there was little he could do to help, but make sure Tails didn't get worse.

Which seemed to be happening anyway.

Tails rolled over, then suddenly jerked awake. "Knuckles?" he said weakly.

"I'm here, kid." Knuckles replied.

"Is there any water?"

"Afraid not."

"Oh." Tails laid back down, looking like he was going to try and go to sleep again. Instead, however, he continued talking. "I don't feel so hot."

"I can see that." Knuckles said. "Any idea why?"

Tails shook his head. "I can't think, my head hurts too much." he said, rubbing his forehead.

"When did this start?" Knuckles asked.

"I...I don't know." Tails replied. "It just...did. Started with a headache, though, then just got worse from there. I think it might be some kind of illness."

"I figured the same thing." Knuckles said, poking at the fire. "I don't suppose your genius little head there can come up with a solution."

"I'm trying, but I can't focus." Tails muttered, his words slurring together as he grew weaker still.

Knuckles stood, agitatedly kicking at a rock, frustrated he couldn't help. "We need help." he muttered. "If we could track down one of the others..."

"Do you hear something?" Tails interrupted suddenly.

Knuckles strained his ears, hearing a low thrum. "Sounds like a ship." he remarked.

"I'd say that's a safe bet." Tails said, looking behind him down the barren backstreet they resided in.

Going slowly, a ship was sliding past. Knuckles glanced at it, not liking the look of it. The ship started to go away, but then suddenly turned back, and started to nose it's way down the backstreet at a low altitude.

"Uh-oh." Tails remarked, trying to stand but failing.

Knuckles quickly went on the defensive, waiting for the ship to make the first move. It slowed as it reached their location, and dropped lower, as if to land. There it hovered innocently for a moment, then it's headlamps flared on, nearly blinding Tails and Knuckles.

"What the..." Knuckles began, shielding his eyes.

There was the sound of a hatch opening, and Knuckles was dimly aware of someone stepping out of the craft.

"Knuckles?" a voice called out.

"Amy?" Knuckles repeated, surprised.

"Knuckles!" Amy said, and suddenly rushed forward and grabbed Knuckles in a hug.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Knuckles exclaimed, quickly pulling out of the hug. "No hugs, whatsoever!"

"Sorry, but it's just so good to see you!" Amy exclaimed, excited in seeing her friends. "We haven't seen a friendly face since we all split up!"

"We?" Knuckles repeated. "Who's we?"

"She's referring to me, Knuckles." Maxwell said, stepping out of the craft. "We've been trying to track everyone back down ever since we spilt up, and you and Tails are the first we've found."

"We did find out some important information though." Amy said, her face turning grave. "We know where Sonic is, and we've met up with his double! Mine too, and neither are very nice!"

"Not surprised, we had a run in with Tails's double, and he's not exactly any advocate of peace and happiness himself." Knuckles said. "We also know where _all _the Chaos Emeralds are. But first..." he turned to look at Tails, who had lapsed into unconsciousness again. "...we need to help Tails. Something's wrong with him."

Maxwell bent down and examined the ill fox. "He's burning up." he remarked. "How long as he been like this?"

"Too long." Knuckles said, kicking dirt onto their fire and stepping over. "And he's only been getting worse."

Maxwell studied Tails for a long moment, shaking his head. "Something's not right about this." he mumbled, the looked up at Knuckles. "We'll have to help him as we go, though, we can't afford to stop, not now. Can you move him into the ship?"

Knuckles nodded and picked up Tails and carried him into. As he did so, Maxwell pulled out his handheld computer and worked with it's scanners for a moment.

"Poor Tails, he looks so ill." Amy whispered, worried. "What sickness has he caught that's brought this about?"

"It's not a sickness." Maxwell announced suddenly. "It's much worse."

"Worse?" Amy repeated, worried.

Maxwell nodded. "Because if we don't get back to our reality soon, we're all going to suffer the same fate as Tails."


	13. Angel Island

C h a p t e r T w e l v e

A n g e l I s l a n d

Taking to the air again, the ship Maxwell and Amy had stolen soared out over the darkening city. Maxwell sat at the controls for a moment, making sure the flight was stable, then engaged the autopilot. Turning in his seat, he faced Knuckles and Amy.

"Where's Tails?" he asked.

"In the back." Knuckles replied. "Whole medical facility back there."

"What's wrong with him, Max?" Amy asked. "You said it wasn't an sickness."

"And technically, it isn't." Maxwell said. "What Tails is experiencing is the result of something I have been fearing since we came to this universe."

"Wait, you're saying that it's because we're in a different universe that Tails is like this?" Knuckles asked.

Maxwell nodded, his red and orange quills bobbing. "It's like I had warned everyone about. Staying here for too long was a very bad idea. And now we're starting to reap the consequences."

"So what's happening?" Amy asked.

"It's simple, really." Maxwell said. "The elements that make us up are different from the elements in this universe. The difference is only slight, but enough that prolonged exposure allows the two varying elements to interact. And they react badly. Toxins and other chemicals are produced that one's body can't recognize and protect itself from, and these toxins are allowed to spread and do their damage. Tails's case is now advanced enough that he's fighting off the effects of this and failing."

"So what will happen?" Amy asked.

"If we can get him back to our universe quickly, he could recover." Maxwell said. "If we don't before it's too late, he will die."

Amy gasped, and Knuckles hung his head.

"It gets worse." Maxwell went on. "Tails is the first to succumb to this so-called illness because he's the youngest, and his body can't fight it as well. But eventually we will all follow, most likely in order of youngest to oldest. Meaning you'll most likely be next to succumb to this illness, Amy."

"So...now what?" Knuckles asked.

"Now we hurry and finish our mission." Maxwell said. "Find a way back to our universe, and stop others from following." he turned to look at Knuckles. "And FYI, Knuckles, Dark Sonic, the Sonic of this universe, has plans of going and taking over our universe."

"But won't the same thing that's happening to us happen to him?" Knuckles asked.

"Yes, but do you really think he'll believe us?" Maxwell said. "No, that would have to be something he'd have to find out for himself, and we're not going to let him get that far."

"But how?" Knuckles asked.

"Dark Sonic can't get to our universe without a means of supercharging some Chaos Emeralds." Maxwell explained. "He's blackmailed Eggman, our Eggman, into giving him the plans for the emerald supercharger. If he never gets those plans..."

"Then he can't carry out his plans." Knuckles said, catching on.

Maxwell nodded. "But first, we're going to secure our safe passage back to our universe." he said, spinning his chair back around to face the control panel. "Knuckles, where's Angel Island?"

"I don't know." Knuckles admitted. "Just because I'd know where it would be in our reality doesn't mean I'd know where it would be in this universe. It _does _float, you know."

"Best guess, then." Maxwell said, typing in commands into the panel.

Knuckles thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Somewhere over the ocean, most likely." he said.

"That's a start." Maxwell said, typing in a command that brought up a map of the ocean on a nearby screen. "Point to the place you think it will most likely be."

Knuckles studied the map for a moment. "There." he said, pointing. "Or at least somewhere in there."

"Good enough." Maxwell said, typing in the coordinates into the autopilot. "Here's hoping."

* * *

As it turned out, Knuckles was right on the money. Within seconds, they were flying over Angel Island, looking dark and apprehensive in the dark of night.

Knuckles shuddered as he looked out the window, down at it. "I like my Angel Island better." he said simply.

"And we'll get you back to it." Maxwell said, typing in commands. "Where's the best place to land?"

Knuckles looked the island over. "There!" he said, pointing. "Right there on the edge of the island!"

"Okay." Maxwell said, directing the ship to that location. "Chaos Emeralds close by to there?"

"No, they'd be with the Master Emerald, which would be more towards the center of the island." Knuckles said.

"Then why don't we just land there?" Maxwell asked, reaching over to adjust their course.

"No!" Knuckles exclaimed, grabbing Maxwell's hand and stopping him. "The guardian for the emerald is down there somewhere, and if he's anything like some of the people we've met up with in this universe, he's not to be messed with. It's best we land as far from him as possible." he paused, then added, "Just trust me on this."

Maxwell, knowing Knuckles would know best, nodded, and followed Knuckles instructions. The ship landed without event on the outskirts of the island.

Opening the hatch and grabbing a bag to put the one Chaos Emerald they would need in, Maxwell turned back to look at Amy. "You'd better stay here and keep an eye on Tails." he said.

Amy nodded, and retreated into the back section of the ship where Tails rested.

When she was gone, Knuckles turned to face Maxwell. "You told her that to keep her here where she was safe, didn't you?" he said. "You know we could be in for trouble."

"Judging from what you said earlier, yes." Maxwell said, pulling out a pistol of some sort.

He offered one to Knuckles, but he refused. "_These _are my weapons." he said, holding up his fists.

"Good enough." Maxwell said, stepping out into the night. "Lead the way, Knuckles."

They trudged through the jungle, heading deeper and deeper into Angel Island. Eventually, they arrived at some ruins.

"This is it." Knuckles said, running one hand over the ruins. "We're nearly at the temple the Master Emerald should reside in. The Chaos Emeralds should be in there with it."

"So how much further, exactly?" Maxwell asked, looking nervous.

"Not far." Knuckles said, continuing further. "Why?"

"I ask, because we've managed to come this far without event." Maxwell said. "I think our luck is going to start to running out. And when it does, things are going to get bad."

"Wimp." Knuckles remarked.

"Am not." Maxwell retorted.

But they got no further in the argument when the jungle suddenly opened up to reveal the large temple they had been looking for. Now, only a short climb up a flight of steps, and they were there. Regardless, they both played it safe and scaled the stairs slowly, looking around constantly for trouble.

But they found none, and they finally arrived at the top, where they could see the Master Emerald sitting on it's podium, and all seven Chaos Emeralds sitting on their own podiums that encircled the Master Emerald's. But there was one other sight that greeted them that was the most surprising of all.

"Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed.

Dangling upside down by one leg, held up there by a rope, was indeed the bat Rouge. But she had clearly seen better days. She was battered and bruised, like she had been a fight and lost. She was also unconscious. Alarmed, the two hurried over to her, Maxwell pulling out his scanner.

"She's alive." he announced after a moment.

"She hardly looks like it." Knuckles said, walking around the beaten Rouge, hanging there like someone's prize kill. "I mean, look at her!"

"I know, she's not in good shape." Maxwell said, working with his scanner. "Deep cuts, broken wing, heavy bruising, cracked rib...and judging from these scans, she's lucky it's not worse."

"What on Earth happened?" Knuckles asked, reaching out to touch Rouge.

He jumped back when Rouge suddenly recoiled backwards from the touch, swinging slightly. Wide awake know, she stared at Knuckles with clouded eyes.

"Oh, come back for more?" she asked in her usual manner, despite her condition. "Go ahead, beat me all you want then, big boy."

"No, it's me, Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I _know _it's you." Rouge replied, not realizing who she was talking to.

"No, it's me, as in the me from our universe!" Knuckles said, pointing at himself.

"Oh. Oh!" Rouge exclaimed, her eyes brightening. "Well, it's about time, then! What kept you?"

"You running off, for one thing, Rouge." Maxwell remarked, pulling out his hoverboard and extending it.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Rouge remarked innocently. "Besides, what's a girl like me to do?"

"Get ready to catch her, Knuckles." Maxwell said, flying his hoverboard up to where the rope was tied around Rouge's foot, and pulling out a knife.

With one swipe, he cut the rope, and Rouge fell into Knuckles outstretched hands. Rouge moaned as her wounds protested, but recovered quickly.

"Hmm, I always wondered if you couldn't keep your mitts off me, Knux." Rouge quipped.

Knuckles rolled his eyes, and looked up to Maxwell. "She'll live."

Maxwell had to laugh, and started to fly down again. "So who did this to you?" he asked Rouge as he did so.

"I think I know." Knuckles said. "It was me, wasn't it?"

"You?" Rouge repeated, looking surprised. "No. You couldn't hurt a fly, Knuckles."

Knuckles rolled his eyes again, then clarified. "No, I mean the _other_ me."

"Oh, him." Rouge said, trying to stand, and managing with the help of Knuckles. "He's not too nice, you know. Not winning any beauty contests, either."

"So he's ugly?" Knuckles asked.

"Didn't help that he's got your looks, either." Rouge added.

"Oh, thanks." Knuckles replied sarcastically.

"So where is Dark Knuckles, then?" Maxwell asked, hopping down from his hoverboard, and grabbing it in preparation in collapsing it again.

It was then that they heard a voice that was unmistakably Knuckles's.

"Right behind you."

* * *

Up in Space Colony ARK, Dark Shadow was hard at work. Dark Rouge stood nearby, watching him.

"C'mon, hon, time for bed." she cooed.

"Not yet." Dark Shadow insisted. "I'm onto something big."

"If this involved that little prize Captain Sonic dropped off here earlier..."

"No, this is much bigger than that." Dark Shadow persisted. "This involves Eggman."

Dark Rouge looked intrigued now. "What about him?" she asked, sitting herself on the edge of the control panel. "Besides the obvious, I mean."

"Let's say I learned something from Captain Sonic's 'prize', as you called it, and now I'm applying it to Eggman." Dark Shadow explained as he worked. "We'll have our answer in a moment."

On the large screen above them, two graphs appeared. One immediately displayed it's results in the form of a wobbly line. The other remained empty for a moment, before it displayed a similar line on itself. Once the graphs were done, Dark Shadow typed in one more command, and the graphs slid together, overlapping each other. The two lines both sported didn't quite match up.

"Ha!" Dark Shadow exclaimed victoriously.

Dark Rouge just frowned at it. "It's a graph." she stated lamely.

"Not just any graph, Rouge." Dark Shadow said. "This graph changes everything. It will give us power, taking it from others. It'll let us get the revenge we crave on whomever we wish. This graph is the biggest window of opportunity we've ever gotten!"

Dark Rouge started at him blankly for a moment. "But it's a graph." she persisted.

"I know!" Dark Shadow exclaimed, annoyed at her failure to understand. "But what you fail to understand is that the data these two graphs contain concern Eggman." he typed in another command, and the graph separated into two again. "The one on the left is a graph of all of Eggman's usual traits."

"Okay." Dark Rouge said, following along.

"The other, you will note, does not match."

"Yeah, I saw."

"That graph is a list of all of Eggman's traits as they stand right now."

Dark Rouge was silent for a moment. "So, you're saying that the Eggman that's sitting on that throne down on Earth, isn't the same Eggman we've had sitting on that throne for the past several years?" she asked, her eyes brightening.

"Yes." Dark Shadow said. "He's just someone who's _like _him. He's actually like Captain Sonic's 'prize.' Came here from alternate reality. He's just here filling in the shoes of our usual Eggman. Who knows what his intentions for the empire are. If word of this were to get out..." he glanced at Drak Rouge, feeling he didn't need to say more.

And he didn't. "Sounds like a coup is in order, then." she remarked with a grin.


	14. Chaos Control

C h a p t e r T h i r t e e n

C h a o s C o n t r o l

Knuckles, Maxwell, and Rouge all whirled around. Sure enough, stepping out of the shadows was Dark Knuckles. And Rouge hadn't been joking he she said he didn't look pretty. Several of his red, dreadlock-like, quills had been snapped, leaving jagged ends. A long scar ran down one side of his face, and part of it went over his right eye. Where there should've been an eye was now a robotic replacement, glowing red and giving Dark Knuckles a look that seemed that much darker. A long and evil looking sword was strapped to his back.

But he seemed to prefer his fists, because this was what he raised as he approached the trio slowly.

"You people are messing with my stuff." Dark Knuckles said in a gravely voice. "And I don't like it when people mess with my stuff."

He then moved without warning, launching himself at Maxwell. Maxwell started to react by raising his pistol, but he wasn't fast enough as Dark Knuckles decked him under the chin. the force of the blow launched Maxwell into the air, who landed on, and skidded across, the top of the Master Emerald, toppling off on the other side.

His pistol flew into the air, and clattered down somewhere behind one of the seven Chaos Emeralds, and Maxwell's hoverboard, still activated and now pilotless, shot forward, ricocheted off a column, and starting spinning like a top, it's path curving around to make it fly around the Master Emerald in a circle.

As this happened, Dark Knuckles grabbed Rouge from his double's arms, and hurled her aside. She smashed into a podium of a blue Chaos Emerald. Dark Knuckles then turned his attention to his double, punching him in the nose. Knuckles, unprepared, was knocked over.

"I also hate impersonators." Dark Knuckles growled at his double, standing over him.

He then launched himself at Knuckles. Knuckles quickly rolled aside, and planted a kick to Dark Knuckles side, pushing him aside. Then, picking himself up, Knuckles leapt onto the back of his evil twin, wrapping his arms around Dark Knuckle's throat. Dark Knuckles gagged for a moment, standing up, and backed into the side of the Master Emerald, pinning Knuckles to it.

Knuckles flinched, and loosened his grasp long enough for Dark Knuckles to throw him off, and onto the floor. Ducking as Maxwell's hoverboard whizzed by, still spinning like a top, Dark Knuckles started towards his double. But Knuckles was up in a flash, and dove for Dark Knuckles.

Dark Knuckles saw the move coming, and grabbed his double by the hands, and swung him around, almost like a discus. He let go, hurling Knuckles at a nearby column. Knuckles latched on it, and used his momentum to swing around on it and kick his doppleganger in the face.

Dark Knuckles went down. Knuckles raced towards him, but was kicked in the middle by both of Dark Knuckles feet. Getting the wind knocked from him, Knuckles doubled over, giving dark Knuckles the chance he needed to get back up. Hearing the whine of Maxwell's hoverboard as it spun by again, Knuckles quickly whirled around and latched onto the side of it.

It's crazy flight path pushed Knuckles forward and spun him around, smashing into his double. Letting go of the board and letting it go on it's way, Knuckles raced towards Dark Knuckles. His evil twin merely slapped him away. But then he had to duck as Maxwell, who had gotten up and retrieved his pistol, fired off a bolt of sizzling energy at Dark Knuckles. Ducking more shots, Dark Knuckles made his way towards Maxwell, and punched him aside. Knuckles then arrived and dealt a punch to the side of the head of his double.

Dark Knuckles then spun around and punched back, knocking his good twin into the air, and into the flight path of Maxwell's hoverboard as it spun by once more. Slapping into it, Knuckles crashed to the floor as the hoverboard flew around on an even more chaotic path than before.

Decided she wasn't going to go down without a fight, Rouge tried to get involved, by jumping onto Dark Knuckles back. Dark Knuckles threw her off, launching the injured bat into the air, and off the top of the temple. Seeing that it probably wasn't a good idea to continue falling to the ground, Rouge tried to fly, but with her broken wing, ended up merely gliding to crash into the top a nearby tree.

Maxwell, meanwhile, had picked himself up once again and raised his pistol to point at the distracted Dark Knuckles, but before he could fire, his own hoverboard came hurtling and ricocheted off the top of the Master Emerald and nearly hit Maxwell in the head. Ducking, Maxwell lost his aim. Hearing the grinding noise the hoverboard had made as it skidded off the Master Emerald, Dark Knuckles turned, saw Maxwell, and punched the hedgehog scientist in the face again.

Maxwell dropped his pistol. Dark Knuckles picked it up with one hand, and crushed it. Then Knuckles came and tackled his double from behind. Enraged, Dark Knuckles tried to throw Knuckles off by swinging around suddenly. Barely hanging on, Knuckles swung with his double, feet flying out and nearly hitting Maxwell again.

Dark Knuckles then stopped his swing, allowing Knuckles feet to hit the ground again. Getting a solid footing, Knuckles threw his double up and over his head. Dark Knuckles landed again on top of the Master Emerald, now sitting off kilter on it's podium. Knuckles hopped up to join him, and the fight continued.

Throwing punches left and right, kicking at each other whenever the chance arrived, the two fought violently. They were forced to break apart however, when Maxwell's out of control hoverboard flew at them. Quickly, they lunged to either side of the Master Emerald, allowing the hoverboard to zoom between them.

The hoverboard continued on it's path until it ricocheted off the top of a column. It sailed upward, it's nose pointing up to the sky. Eventually, however, it stalled out, and tumbled around, heading back the way it came. Dark Knuckles apparently got an idea, and leapt upward, and landed on the board as it zoomed past. Quickly gaining control over it, he used it to surge towards his double.

Knuckles tried to run for cover, but wasn't fast enough as his double grabbed him by the back, and lifted him into the air. Swinging him around, Dark Knuckles smashed his good twin into a column as they flew past it. Stunned by the blow, but seeing what his double was up to, Knuckles kicked off of the next column, and swung himself to join his evil twin on the hoverboard. Despite there hardly being room for each other, they cautiously swung punches at each other, wobbling dangerously each time they overbalanced.

Finally, Dark Knuckles managed to slap his arm into his twin's chest, and Knuckles flipped over and off the board. Quickly, Knuckles grabbed the edge of the board, stopping his fall. Dark Knuckles raised his foot to stomp down on Knuckles hand. Knuckles quickly switched his hold on the board to his other hand and let go of the board with the first, saving his hand from being crushed under his doppleganger's foot.

Knowing his double would just try that stunt again with his other hand, Knuckles swung around and grabbed hold of the nose of the hoverboard, putting some distance from Dark Knuckles. Then the hoverboard, weighted on one side due to Knuckles hanging from it's nose, tilted over to hang vertically in the air. Not being strapped down to the board, Dark Knuckles slid off it and tumbled to the ground.

The board then flipped over again, taking Knuckles with it. The momentum caused Knuckles to loose his grip, and fall off as well, crashing down to land on top of the Master Emerald again. It was then that Knuckles got an idea. Here he was fighting against a powerful enemy, when he had the best tool to combat him with sitting all around.

Seven Chaos Emeralds. Why not use them to achieve a super form, and thus finish this battle in a heartbeat?

Seeing Dark Knuckles charge him again, artificial eye blaring a bright red, Knuckles knew he wasn't going to get much of a better chance. Hopping down from the top of the Master Emerald, Knuckles grabbed the closest of the seven Chaos Emeralds, then went around grabbing the next one after that.

He had managed to grab three before Dark Knuckles caught up with him, and slapped him the back, knocking Knuckles to ground, dropping the three emeralds and rolling into the podium of a fourth emerald. One of the emeralds, the green one, skidded over to Maxwell, who picked it up. He then glanced over at the Master Emerald. And an idea started to form...

As Dark Knuckles started to charge Knuckles, fist stretched forth, Maxwell took the emerald in his hands, climbed up onto the Master Emerald, and, praying this would work, slapped the Chaos Emerald on to the top of the Master Emerald.

The two emeralds sparked, but nothing seemed to happen for a moment. But then the Chaos Emerald in Maxwell hands started to flare brightly, and suddenly, it was a Super Emerald. Knuckles was busy picking himself when he turned and saw Dark Knuckles racing towards him, and quickly went to brace himself for the blow.

Maxwell took the Super Emerald, lifted it over his head, squeezed his eyes shut, hoping this wasn't a total mistake, and exclaimed, "CHAOS CONTROL!"

For a long moment, nothing seemed to happen. Finally, Maxwell opened his eyes, and looked around. Both of the two Knuckles were staring at him, looking to be too shocked to move. For a long moment, Maxwell thought they were simply shocked at Maxwell's sudden move to try and use Chaos Control, but then saw his hoverboard, where it had been flipping over and over again in a lazy fashion.

It was frozen mid-flip.

It was then that Maxwell realized what had happened. He had successfully used Chaos Control. Exactly how...was another question. It appeared he had managed to stop time, or at least drastically slow it down. Whatever the case, it gave him the advantage he had been looking for. And better still, this Super Emerald wasn't losing it's charge. As it had been given it's super form properly by the Master Emerald and not artificially like the emerald they had used to get in this universe, it was able to maintain it's super charge.

At least for now. Maxwell presumed that repeated use and constantly drawing power from it would eventually force it to revert back into it's normal Chaos Emerald form, and then it was of little use to Maxwell, since he couldn't use the Chaos Control with a normal emerald. But Maxwell didn't intend to use the Super Emerald like that for that long.

Jumping down from the Master Emerald, he looked around, trying to decide how he wanted to do this. First, he decided he needed to spilt up the two Knuckles. Standing beside them and rubbing his chin for a moment, he wondered how he should do that. Finally, he decided to give Dark Knuckles a shove to the left, and pull Knuckles out of the way and tugging him to the right.

Satisfied, Maxwell then looked around for another way to help. Looking up at his hoverboard, he decided it would be helpful if he had it again. Climbing up onto the Master Emerald again, he hopped up and grabbed it by the nose, pulling it down again, still frozen in time. Realizing it would go into motion again the moment he exited this state Chaos Control had brought him into, Maxwell turned off the board, thus deactivating it's engines. He then leveled it out, and climbed onto it, placing his toe over the power button.

Pointing it at the two Knuckles, still frozen in time, Maxwell regarded the Super Emerald in his hand.

"How do I stop this, I wonder?" he asked aloud.

And then, like that, time unfroze and everything started to move again. Maxwell's hoverboard jolted briefly, then shut down. Dark Knuckles, about to deal his double a punch, suddenly veered off course and smashed to the ground, and Knuckles suddenly stumbled away from him.

Maxwell quickly turned his hoverboard back on, and while holding onto the Super Emerald, sped off, coming about to head towards Dark Knuckles as he picked himself up. Just a he did, Maxwell rammed into him. Dark Knuckles, in surprise latched onto the board, and was dragged along as Maxwell and the hoverboard continued on, flying off the top of the temple and out over the jungle that covered Angel Island.

Dark Knuckles hung on tightly as Maxwell watched him struggle. The double's eyes finally fell on the Super Emerald in Maxwell's hand, glowing brightly.

"What _is _that?" he asked, puzzled.

"It's called a Super Emerald." Maxwell explained. "Gives you an edge more than a regular Chaos Emerald would. But now that you're here, I kinda don't need it, because I can simply do this."

Maxwell turned the hoverboard sharply to the left, and in the process, Dark Knuckles lost his grasp on the board. He started to fall, several feet from the ground, and now on the outer edges on the floating island. Dark Knuckles fumbled in midair for a moment, then rolled over so his dreadlocks caught the air, and he glided down to safety. But by that point, Maxwell had turned the board around, and was well on his way back to the temple.

As he flew back, Maxwell tossed the emerald around in his hands. "I _like _this thing." he said with a grin.

Arriving back at the temple, he saw Knuckles standing at the top of the temple, looking impressed, and Rouge dangling from a branch in a tree, waving at him to get his attention.

"Hey, Max!" she cried out. "Think you could help a damsel in distress here?"

Maxwell rolled his eyes with a smirk, and hovered over, allowing the injured Rouge to carefully climb on, then go and land on top of the temple.

There, Knuckles was shaking his head. "I must say Max, that was some idea." he admitted. "Here I was thinking of gathering all seven emeralds to achieve a super form, but you did the more practical thing, and obtained a Super Emerald to use."

"And the best thing is that we can still use it." Maxwell said, holding up the super-charged Chaos Emerald as he put away his hoverboard.

"No need to build that machine of Eggman's that artificially charged the emeralds." Rouge noted, weakly standing up and favoring her bruised and injured parts. "Now we can just use that thing to go home."

"Then our job here is done." Knuckles said.

"Grab the other six emeralds anyway." Maxwell requested. "Because I have feeling we'll need the power of all seven before this is mess has ended."


	15. Blacklist

C h a p t e r F o u r t e e n

B l a c k l i s t

Maxwell, Knuckles, and Rouge all returned to their stolen ship without any further event, six Chaos Emeralds and a Super Emerald in tow. As they entered, Amy stuck her head out of the entrance to the back of the craft.

"You're back!" she exclaimed, looking relieved. "Thank heavens, I was about ready to go looking for you guys!"

"Nah, we had everything under control." Rouge remarked, leaning heavily against Knuckles, despite Knuckles looking uncomfortable about it.

Amy looked towards the bat, and blinked in surprise at the injuries Dark Knuckles had dealt to her. "Rouge!" she exclaimed, coming to Rouge's aide. "What happened to you?"

"Let's just say I saw Knuckles's bad side." Rouge said, gratefully accepting the help, being led to the medical facility in the back of the ship. "I think I prefer his good side over his bad side. Good side's easier on the eyes."

Knuckles stared up at the ceiling, shaking his head. Maxwell set their emeralds aside, then sat down at the ship's controls, and soon had them airborne. A moment later, Amy had returned.

"Took care of Rouge, huh?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah, by sedating her." Amy grumbled. "Wouldn't let me do a thing with her wounds while she was conscious. Kept claiming they weren't as bad as they looked and that she was fine."

"Technically they aren't as bad as they look, but those wounds are still serious." Maxwell said, setting the autopilot before turning to look at Amy. "But Rouge's injuries isn't the worse of our problems at the moment. How's Tails?"

"Not getting any better." Amy said. "He hasn't come to very often since you guys left." she regarded the emeralds they had collected. "I see you met our goals though, but I though we only needed one emerald?"

"It never hurts to have a full seven." Maxwell said, then changed the subject. "How are you holding up, Amy?"

The pink hedgehog collapsed into a nearby chair. "I'm dead tired." she admitted. "And I've got the beginning of a headache coming on, just like Tails did before he fell so ill. I don't know how much longer I can keep going like this."

"Hopefully you won't have to." Knuckles said. "All we gotta do now is grab Sonic, destroy the plans for the emerald supercharger, then hightail it out of this nightmare we're trapped in."

"Easier said than done, Knuckles." Maxwell pointed out. "You and me are pretty much the only ones left who can fight, and who knows for how much longer that will last."

"It can be done." Knuckles said. "All we gotta do is bust Sonic out of whatever jail Dark Sonic's locked him away in."

"I would hardly call Space Colony ARK a jail, Knuckles." Amy remarked, as Maxwell turned to face the ship's controls again.

"ARK?" Knuckles repeated. He turned to Maxwell. "We're going to Space Colony ARK?"

"Yes, that's where Sonic is." Maxwell said, not looking up from the controls. "Didn't I tell you?"

"No!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Well, now you know." Maxwell replied.

Knuckles thought about it for a moment. "Well, I do know the place fairly well, due to the last time I was up there..." he muttered.

"That's thinking optimistic." Maxwell praised the echidna, looking out the forward window of the ship as it broke through the atmosphere and out into space. "A good thing, too, because we should be getting there fairly soon."

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Sonic said, leaning against the side of the bed, with Amanda sitting on the bed itself, above his head. "The moment Dark Eggman showed up in this universe, he gained instant control, because instead of Dark Sonic fighting him, like I did in my universe, he supported Dark Eggman."

"That's right." Amanda said.

"So, in the matter of just a few years, Dark Eggman had complete control over the world in this universe, and that's where history in our two universes differ the most." Sonic concluded, shaking his head. "And boy, are those differences big. The Tails and Sonic of this reality never teamed up like we did back home, nor did Dark Sonic make Knuckles of this universe his ally. Dark Shadow pretty much stayed bad, at least in a sense. I still can't tell the intentions that guy has." he then paused, and looked up at Amanda. "And then there's you. You're different from everyone else in this reality."

"Makes you kinda wish we had met in your universe, doesn't it?" Amanda asked with a grin.

"Maybe." Sonic said, wearing a neutral expression like he still wasn't sure about that little matter. "But if I ever did, I don't think Amy would be too thrilled with it. But it's just as how Maxwell had described it. A universe almost like our own, but different in it's own special ways."

"He said that?" Amanda asked.

"Well, with bigger words." Sonic admitted.

"Sounds like he's pretty boring." Amanda noted.

"Well, his appearance wouldn't indicate that." Sonic said, then stood up and began stretching his legs. "Any chance of me getting out of here anytime soon?"

"Like I said, you cannot leave until Sonic, my Sonic, returns." Amanda said, sitting up on the bed. "And he works on his own clock."

"I'm sure he does." Sonic muttered, starting to pace. "In a sense, that's what I've always done. But I'm getting really, really, bored now."

"I'm sorry, I really didn't think he would be gone for so long." Amanda said.

"That's another thing that makes you stand out from everyone else here; you're polite." Sonic noted, then without waiting for an answer, went back to his own thoughts. "I wonder what my friends are doing, and if they're staying safe."

"Don't worry about them." Amanda said, coming to Sonic's side. "Things are going to change for you, you know."

"Of course they are, because sooner or later, I'm going to figure out a way out of this little prisoner my doppleganger's got me in." Sonic said.

"That's not what I meant." Amanda said, standing.

"I know, but you should know that whatever life _you _want me to lead here isn't going to happen." Sonic said, moving away from her. "I completely intend to go back to my universe. I miss it."

"I know." Amanda said, resting a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "But Sonic, there's something you should probably know."

But she never got a chance to tell him, for at that moment, the door slid open, and two figures entered the room. Sonic turned to face the leader of the duet, and frowned.

"Dark Shadow, I presume." Sonic remarked.

Dark Shadow nodded, looking annoyed, but it was only this little confirmation that allowed Sonic to know this Shadow wasn't the same as the Shadow of his reality. Other than that, he had nothing, because the two would be perfectly identical to each other if they were to stand side by side.

With Dark Shadow was Dark Rouge, who also looked like a lot like her counterpart from Sonic's universe, except she wore a tight-fitting, all-black, jumpsuit.

"Change in plans, you two." she announced.

"Change in plans?" Amanda repeated, looking worried. "But the plan wasn't suppose to change."

"What _is _the change in plans?" Sonic asked.

"You are going to come with me." Dark Shadow replied simply.

"Shadow, no." Amanda said, intervening. "Sonic said that he was to stay here until he returns."

"Captain Sonic's control over us only goes so far." Dark Rouge said, approaching Amanda. "And, like I said, it's a change in plans."

"Was it a change Sonic agreed on?" Amanda demanded, but was looking increasingly worried.

"As of right now, Sonic is the enemy." Dark Shadow said. "Both of them."

Sonic readied himself to run at this statement.

Amanda looked bewildered, however. "Why?" she asked.

"Because, miss loyalist, we know a few things you don't, and our pseudo-Sonic here is the key to all of it." Dark Rouge said, stepping around Sonic to stand behind him, a pair of shackles in her hand. "So you're going to stand out of the way, Amanda, and let us carry out our plans."

"If you don't, you'll be put on the blacklist as well." Dark Shadow added, folding his arms and glaring at Amanda.

"At least tell me the emperor has okayed this." Amanda said, stepping to one side.

"Eggman's on the list, too, sweet cheeks." Dark Rouge said, going to put the shackles over Sonic's hands, who, at the moment, provided no resistence. "He's an enemy as well."

Sonic suddenly made the connection. "It's a coup d'etat." he realized. "You're going to overthrow Eggman."

"Very good, super speed, now play along for the moment, and we'll let you live." Dark Rouge said, fitting Sonic's wrists to the shackles, and was about to lock them.

"Gotta catch me first." Sonic said, and was suddenly on the move.

Pushing both Dark Rouge and Amanda jointly out of the way, Sonic raced for the open door, knowing this was probably going to be his only chance to escape. Dark Shadow moved to block Sonic's path, but nothing was going to stop the supersonic hedgehog now. Plowing past Dark Shadow, nearly knocking him over, Sonic sped out into the hallway beyond, and raced out of sight.

Dark Shadow was quickly going after him, and Dark Rouge followed, closing the door behind her, locking Amanda into the room beyond. They both jogged down the hallway for a moment.

"Where would he go?" Dark Rouge grumbled.

"To the control room." Dark Shadow replied. "That's where I would go. He could control all of the space colony from up there."

"Then let's go." Dark Rouge said, heading in the direction of the control room.

But they were stopped when a wristwatch-like device on Dark Shadow's wrist beeped.

"Someone is approaching the colony." he announced. "They're en route to dock."

"_More _company?" Dark Rouge asked, annoyed.

"You go take care of them." Dark Shadow said, pushing Dark Rouge towards the docking bay. "I'll take care of Sonic."

And with that, he was off. Shrugging and figuring she could handle the assigned task easily, Dark Rouge headed towards the docking bay.

* * *

"You know, there's one thing I don't get." Knuckles remarked out of the blue as they made their way towards the space colony. "Back at Angel Island, when you used Chaos Control with that Super Emerald, why didn't it take you back to our reality?"

Maxwell pondered the situation for a moment before answering. "I believe it goes back to what Tails said before about Chaos Control." he said. "Just like it doesn't necessarily have to affect yourself, it doesn't necessarily have to teleport you anywhere. And I didn't want it to teleport me anywhere, so it didn't. Instead, it just slowed time for me to turn the odds of the fight with Dark Knuckles. I think that so long as I don't try to use Chaos Control with a Super Emerald to try and teleport, it won't take me to our reality, or any other reality."

"Okay, fair enough." Knuckles said, watching Space Colony ARK loom closer. "Another question, though. It's going to be a bit too much to hope that there won't be anybody waiting for us when we dock with that thing, isn't it?"

"Probably." Maxwell replied with a sigh. He pulled out a new laser pistol. "Sure you don't want one of these? With Eggman as emperor in this universe, the colony could be fully manned."

"I prefer my fists." Knuckles said, curling his hands into fists. "Besides, I'm not very good using a gun, anyway."

They edged closer to the colony, now close enough that they could make out the docking port they were to dock with. Amy stepped out of the ship's back room, and watched.

"We sure there's anybody on board?" she asked. "I mean, they haven't contacted us, or done anything to show they've acknowledged our presence."

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing." Maxwell said, tapping the controls. "Unfortunately, the colony has some kind of sensor shield in place, that prevents me from scanning it. I have no idea who or what is in there, if anything." he watched the docking port come closer. "It's starting to worry me, actually."

"Yeah, what if it's a trap?" Knuckles asked.

"Amy, you better stay here for this one, too." Maxwell suggested.

"I fully intended to." Amy said, stepping back into the back room.

A moment later, the ship bumped gently into the docking port, and a hiss rang out as the airlock pressurized.

"Well, I guess this is it." Maxwell said, powering down the ship and heading for the access hatch. "Ready Knuckles?"

"Pretty much." Knuckles said, going into a defensive position.

Raising his laser pistol, Maxwell opened the hatch, and looked into the corridor beyond. No one was there. Yet, anyway. Moving cautiously, the two started down the corridor.

"Seems quiet." Maxwell noted.

"Shush." Knuckles said, tensing up. "Someone's coming."

Sure enough, the sound of footsteps could be heard coming their way, and it sounded like the person was running. A moment later, the owner of the footsteps came into view, skidding to a stop.

"Ah!" Dark Rouge exclaimed, seeing Knuckles and Maxwell. "I'm just in time to meet the rescue squad!"


	16. Space Colony ARK

C h a p t e r F i f t e e n

S p a c e C o l o n y A R K

Sonic ran on through the complicated corridors of Space Colony ARK, hoping he could remember where everything was. All things considered, it had been awhile since he been aboard the colony. Seeing that it was equipped with the Eclipse Cannon, a weapon capable of destroying the world, this was fairly understandable.

Now, part of him wished he had visited it more, or at least studied it's plans, in case a situation like this ever happened. But the whole place was kinda creepy, and he could study the plans, because that was boring. He didn't do boring things unless he was forced to. Oh well. No time to regret over past choices.

After a long time of running almost aimlessly through the dark and dreary hallways of the space colony, Sonic finally found himself in a part of the massive station that actually seemed familiar. He knew that his destination, the control room, was nearby. He was proven right when he came skidding to a halt outside a heavy metal door with the words "command room" painted on it in big letters.

Sonic found the door control and pressed it. The control buzzed, and the door didn't budge. Clearly, it was locked.

"Figures." Sonic muttered, and tried spin-dashing the door, trying to saw his way through.

But like the door back in the room he had spent the past several hours stuck in with Amanda, it did not give way. He guessed it was spin-dash proof too.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance and well aware of the fact that he didn't have all the time in the world, he pried open the cover on the door controls, and peered at the circuitry inside. After finding what he perceived to be the wire working the door, Sonic began tracing it back to it's start.

"This is really a job for Tails." he muttered.

Finding the end of the wire, he gave it a yank. The wire sparked, zapping Sonic, but it worked. The door opened slowly. Satisfied, he rushed into the room, and looked around. There were lots and lots of control panels, screens, and other technological stuff Sonic wasn't interested in. There was, however, the device where the Chaos Emeralds were inserted when one wanted to power the colony up to full power.

He quickly made his way there, finding that the device was covered by a metal screen. Sonic couldn't remember such a thing existing last time he was here, and figured it was one of those more minor differences between his universe and this universe. He quickly sought out a control for the metal panel, and quickly found it. Upon pressing it, the panel started to slide back.

"Hold it right there, Sonic." a voice rang out from behind him.

Sonic turned, and saw that Dark Shadow had caught up with him.

* * *

"Rouge!" Maxwell exclaimed in surprise.

"In the flesh!" Dark Rouge remarked, approaching the duo slowly, then, without warning, punching Maxwell in the nose.

"Hey!" Knuckles exclaimed, and rushed forward, tackling Dark Rouge to the wall.

"Whoa, easy there, big fella!" Dark Rouge exclaimed. "You had your chance to get the girl!"

Knuckles stopped, puzzled. "Huh?" he asked.

Dark Rouge used his moment of puzzlement to kick him off of her. "Sheesh, some rescue party you guys are." she remarked.

Knuckles picked himself up and let out a roar, charging Dark Rouge once more. Rouge's dopplegander merely side-stepped the echidna and landed a kick to Knuckles exposed back as he sped past her. Maxwell then grabbed a hold of the bat from behind. Dark Rouge struggled fruitlessly for a moment. Knuckles came back to deal Dark Rouge a punch, but before he could, Dark Rouge planted a kick to his chest.

She then drove her elbow into Maxwell's chest, making the scientist hedgehog double over and let her go. Brushing herself off, Dark Rouge started forward again only to find Knuckles diving towards her to tackle her. She quickly leapt over the enraged echidna, and with a downward flap of her wings, she flew upward high enough to grab a handhold on a grate covering a light hanging in the ceiling. Knuckles crashed to floor.

Hanging upside down above them, Rouge's double laughed, but the humor was cut short when Maxwell retrieved his fallen laser pistol and fired it at Dark Rouge. He missed, perhaps on purpose, but the latches holding the grate that Dark Rouge was hanging onto snapped, and both the bat and the grate crashed to the floor.

Knuckles and Maxwell then both grabbed her jointly and pinned her to the wall again. Dark Rouge struggled, and finally managed to grab Kunckles and Maxwell's heads and slam them together. Both letting out shouts of pain, they released Dark Rouge, who shoved her way past and headed into the docked ship Knuckles and Maxwell had just come from.

Maxwell fired his laser pistol again at her, but his head was spinning too much to line up a clear shot and kept missing. As Dark Rouge entered, Amy exited the back room, rubbing her forehead. She had perhaps heard the commotion and was coming to help, but Dark Rouge simply shoved her back into the medical room in the ship's rear, and the bat later heard the pink hedgehog crash into something noisy.

She looked around the ship for a moment before she spied the seven Chaos Emeralds, still sitting where they had been left. Being the thief she was, she was quickly drawn towards them. As she approached, she spied the much-brighter glow of the still-charged Super Emerald, and reached out to grab it...

* * *

"Shadow." Sonic said, glaring at Dark Shadow. "Decided not to leave me alone, huh?"

"Not on my colony." Dark Shadow growled, stepping through the open door and into the control room. "Now move away from that console!"

Sonic glanced out of the corner of his eye back at the open device, where he hoped the Chaos Emeralds would be. Seeing that this was a much darker rendition of his universe, Sonic presumed the emeralds would be here all the time, so that Dark Eggman could use the Eclipse Cannon whenever he wanted to eliminate any threats to his empire.

So he quickly turned and reached for it, but Dark Shadow quickly raced forward, grabbed Sonic, and threw him back, where the blue hedgehog landed in a heap in the middle of the room. But Sonic had seen what he wanted to see.

"There aren't any Chaos Emeralds in there!" he exclaimed.

"Don't need them." Dark Shadow said, stepping over to stand above Sonic. "Neither do you."

He grabbed Sonic before he could pick himself up and threw him across the room. Sonic slammed hard into some railing before sliding to the floor. He quickly forced himself up again.

"Well, so much for the hope we could talk this out." Sonic said, then sped forward, racing around and around Dark Shadow, his speed creating a small vortex.

Dark Shadow raised his arms up for a moment as if to protect himself, paused, then suddenly stuck his arm out in a random direction. Sonic smacked into and was brought to a halt as he crashed to the floor.

Dark Shadow looked down at him. "You should really watch where you're going." he remarked.

Sonic sat up and punched up, before hopping back onto his feet. "Yeah, I've been told that before." he said.

Dark Shadow rubbing his hand against the spot Sonic had punched him then glared at his opponent. "Maybe I should teach you some other lessons, then." he said, moving forward.

And soon after that, the fight was on.

* * *

Dark Rogue's fingers had just barely touched the Super Emerald when Maxwell suddenly threw himself on her.

"Don't you touch that!" he exclaimed, trying to strangle her.

He ultimately failed, and Dark Rouge finally threw him off of her. The moment she had done this, however, Knuckles came speeding towards her, the spike on his knuckles pointed right at her. The bat quickly dodged, and Knuckles ended up driving the spikes into the wall of the ship. He whipped them back out again, and a low hissing noise started to emit from the holes in the wall. Knuckles's spikes had pierced the hull of the ship, straight into space.

"Knuckles!" Maxwell exclaimed, and rushed over to try and seal the leak.

Dark Rouge intervened and dealt him a punch, before dealing one out for Knuckles as well. Slowly she drove them back to the door, and pushed them back onto the space colony.

"If you two are here to save Sonic, don't bother." she said, leaning against the frame of the door. "My Shadow's probably already beating him up. And besides, you two ain't going to anyway, not while I'm around."

Then, suddenly, a metallic clang rang out as a metal tray smacked into the back of Dark Rogue's head. The bat grunted, then collapsed, revealing her double, weakly standing behind her.

"'Ain't' ain't a word!" Rouge reprimanded her double, then collapsed herself.

"Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed, and rushed over to help her back up.

"Hey big fella." Rouge greeted weakly. "Heard a fight going on out here, and figured you needed some help."

Maxwell pushed past them, and quickly patched the hole in the ship's hull. Turning away from that, he suddenly spied the Super Emerald lying on the floor, when it had gotten knocked there earlier in the fight. Maxwell picked up it up, and suddenly had an idea.

"Knuckles, you take care of the two Rouges and hold down the fort!" the scientist said as he hurried back off the ship and into Space Colony ARK, taking the emerald with him.

"Where are you going?" Knuckles asked in annoyance.

"To help Sonic!" Maxwell cried back.

* * *

Up in the control room, Sonic certainly could use some help. It seemed neither he or Dark Shadow could turn the tide of their fight enough so that one could rise victorious. They punched, kicked, slapped, used their various special abilities when needed, but neither was getting any closer to winning the fight.

Dark Shadow currently had Sonic by both arms and had rammed him backwards into some railing. Bent over it, Sonic gritted his teeth as he resisted his opponent's strength, and finally pushed Dark Shadow backwards and away from him. Sonic then retook a fighting position, readying for himself for the next attack.

It was then that Maxwell arrived.

"Sonic!" he exclaimed.

Sonic turned. "Max!" he exclaimed back, a little surprised to see the scientist, but pleased at the same time.

"Catch!" Maxwell said, and threw the Super Emerald to Sonic.

Sonic caught it, and without needing explanation of what to do with it, whirled around to point it at Dark Shadow.

"Chaos..." he began to shout, but Dark Shadow tackled him head on, knocking the Super Emerald out of Sonic's hand and back towards Maxwell, who picked it back up.

"Max!" Sonic shouted as he wrestled with Dark Shadow. "Say Chaos Spear!"

"Chaos...Spear?" Maxwell repeated with doubt, holding the Super Emerald out before him.

A bolt of energy lashed out from the emerald and struck the floor, blasting a hole in it, and knocking Sonic and Dark Shadow apart. Dark Shadow skidded over to one side of the room. Sonic rolled to one side, then hopped back onto his feet and spin-dashed towards Dark Shadow, bowling the hedgehog over.

"Chaos Spear!" Maxwell shouted again, this time with more confidence.

The blast struck just in front of Dark Shadow, knocking him back over again just as he got back up. Seeing that Maxwell was the bigger threat now, Dark Shadow made his way towards him. Seeing that the ultimate life form was heading his way, Maxwell continued to use Chaos Spear, blasting up the control room in the process, but Dark Shadow kept dodging the blasts.

Finally, he reached Maxwell, and slapped the red-furred hedgehog aside, grabbing the Super Emerald in the process. He turned around in time for Sonic to speed by and grab the emerald from his hand, then spin around to point it at Dark Shadow.

"Chaos Wave!" Sonic exclaimed.

A wave of energy blasted out of the emerald, and plowed into both Dark Shadow and Maxwell, knocking them in various directions. Dark Shadow crashed to the ground, saw a piece of debris lying on the ground, then hurled it at Sonic. It hit Sonic right on target, and knocked the Super Emerald from his hand.

Maxwell caught it, thus seizing control over the emerald once more. "Chaos Spear!" he shouted once more.

Dark Shadow quickly leapt to one side as the resulting bolt of energy sheered towards him. It missed completely of it's target and instead hit a large window that covered most of one wall of the control room. It promptly shattered, exposing the room to the vacuum of space. The air in the room started to suck out into the inky depths of space, taking the room's occupants with it.

Maxwell crashed into a control panel, and quickly latched onto it, searching for a control that would seal the leak, and was dismayed to see that it had been destroyed in the fight. Sonic slid across the room and smashed into a row of railing that stretched out just before the broken window. Dark Shadow was nearly sucked out into the space, but was able to stop this by grabbing onto a piece of the frame that had made up the window. It was the only thing that was keeping him from getting sucked out completely.

Maxwell turned to the front of the room, and saw the entrance door close and seal off the room. Turning back, he spied an air mask, a reached out and grabbed it. He suddenly lost his hand hold on the control panel and was pulled towards the broken window, and was stopped by the same railing that Sonic desperately hung onto.

But by far, Dark Shadow was in more trouble than the others, and was desperately looking for a way to escape. His eyes finally fell upon the Super Emerald still in Maxwell's hand, and extended his own hand towards it.

"Chaos Control!" he exclaimed.

And he suddenly vanished. Sonic and Maxwell glanced at each other as the air in the room continued to surge out. Maxwell then saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, and turned and saw the door controls rewire itself at lightning speeds.

"He's warped time to slow himself down!" Maxwell exclaimed, pointing.

"Grab on!" Sonic shouted back, holding out a hand for Maxwell to grab.

The door suddenly opened, allowing a flood of air to surge into the room, refreshing the supply. Sonic, while holding onto Maxwell, ran towards the open door, going as fast as he could. The rushing air, and the drag of holding onto Maxwell slowed him down, but Sonic slowly moved towards the open door. They were only feet away when the door started to close again.

Sonic put on an extra burst of speed, and hurried faster towards the door. He and Maxwell slipped through it just before it closed. Now in the safety of the pressurized hallway, Sonic and Maxwell stopped to regain their breath, and try and to relax their nerves.

"Remind to never try something like that again." Sonic said to Maxwell. "At least, not in my super form, at least."

"Agreed." Maxwell said, clutching the Super Emerald tightly in his hand, and looked around, not finding any trace of Dark Shadow. "Where do you think he went?" he asked. "For that matter, how did he manage to use Chaos Control like that?"

"Dark Shadow?" Sonic asked. "Dunno. Shadow's always been like that, with who knows how many tricks up his sleeve. I'm not even going to try to guess what he's up to and why. But let's get out of here before he decides to come back for us."

"Right." Maxwell said, standing up. "It's a little ways back to our ship, though."

"Nah." Sonic said, standing up. "With me around, everything's a short run away."

He pulled Maxwell onto his back, and then sped on down the hallway, heading towards the docking bay...


	17. Repercussions

This is a kind of interlude chpt, and is a little shorter than past. Action will pick up next chpt.

C h a p t e r S i x t e e n

R e p e r c u s s i o n s

Sonic had been right. The trip back to the ship had been sped up significantly by him giving Maxwell a lift back. but by that point, Maxwell had been enjoying going at superspeeds too much to notice. He was disappointed however when the ride came to a stop when they arrived at the airlock again.

As Sonic screeched to a halt, and Maxwell climbed off his back, they found Kunckles tying up the still-unconscious Dark Rouge to a support beam.

"There." he said, giving the rope one final tug. "That way she can stay there until someone else finds her." he turned and saw Sonic. "So, finally caught up with us, did you?"

"Yeah, finally." Sonic said. "See you've survived."

"Yeah, well, I'm tough." Knuckles said with a shrug. "What were you up to?"

"Beating Dark Shadow." Sonic said with a shrug. "You know, nothing difficult."

"I beg to differ!" Maxwell objected. "You were losing until I showed up with the Super Emerald!" he held out the glowing emerald. "And even then, we still nearly lost and got sucked out into space!"

"Like I said, nothing to worry about." Sonic said with a shrug. "You should see what a bad day for me is like."

"And this isn't a bad day?" Maxwell asked, amazed at Sonic's calmness.

Sonic ignored him. "So I see you got a Super Emerald while we were separated." he said as they entered the ship. "And a ship. So what else did I miss?"

"Well, we got those." Knuckles said, pointing across the ship.

Sonic turned to look at the other six Chaos Emeralds they had. "Felt like we needed a few spares, Maxwell?"

The scientist hedgehog shrugged. "It never hurts." he pointed out.

"So where's everyone else?" Sonic asked next. "Amy, Rouge, and Tails?"

Knuckles and Maxwell exchanged brief glances.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"It's not good." Maxwell said, then pointed behind him. "They're all in there, in the medical bay..."

"Medical bay?" Sonic repeated, alarmed for his friends, and entered the rear room of the ship.

Sure enough, they were all there. Tails laid on one bed, unconscious and looked deathly ill. Rouge laid on another bed, all bandaged up and bruised, but was awake and looking around. And Amy was sitting wearily in a chair while rubbing her forehead, starting to succumb to the effects of her prolonged stay in the alternate reality.

Sonic surveyed all of this for a very long moment. "What happened?" he asked, turning to look at Maxwell.

Maxwell was silent for a moment. "Well, in Rouge's case, she had a fight with Dark Knuckles, and lost."

"I resent that, by the way." Rouge added. "And if I hear anybody saying otherwise..."

"Oh hush." Knuckles interrupted. "Just admit that you can't beat me in a fight."

"That's enough." Maxwell said, cutting short the argument he knew was coming. "Now, as for Tails and Amy, it's a bit more complicated." he sighed. "It turns out, Sonic, that I was right from the beginning. Staying in a reality other than your own for too long is not a good idea. Prolonged exposure will begin to cause problems, and the younger you are, the sooner you begin to succumb to them."

Sonic frowned, and looked down at the unconscious Tails, who was closest.

"Tails was first to fall ill, and therefore is the worst." Maxwell went on. "Amy is second, but her condition hasn't gotten nearly as bad just yet. And it won't stop there. If we stay here for much longer, we'll all succumb to the same thing. You and Knuckles will most likely be next, Sonic."

Sonic hung his head, and Knuckles grunted in acknowledgment, wearing a grim expression.

"Will they be alright?" Sonic asked, turning to look at Amy, who gave him a comforting grin, silently saying to not worry about her just yet.

"If we can get back home soon enough, yes." Maxwell said. "Once back in our reality, the illness should go away after a little while. But the longer we stay here, the worse it gets."

"So if we don't get back soon..." Sonic began.

"We'll all start dying." Maxwell said, being blunt. "Starting with the youngest."

All eyes fell on Tails.

"Die?" Rouge asked, alarmed. "But I'm too pretty to die!"

"Not at the moment." Knuckles said flippantly, in regards to her battered condition.

Rouge shot him a look.

"Hopefully it won't come to that." Maxwell said. "We're all reunited again, and we've got what we need to go home. All we need to do now is destroy Eggman's plans for the emerald supercharger before we leave."

"What?" Sonic asked. "Why?"

"You're double has plans for coming and invading our universe." Knuckles explained. "He needs an emerald supercharger in order to pull it off."

"And since Eggman of our universe is here, Dark Sonic blackmailed him into redrawing the plans for the emerald supercharger." Maxwell added. "We need to destroy those plans."

"Then let's go." Sonic said. "Every second we stay in this universe, things just get worse."

Maxwell nodded, and headed for the pilot's chair. Knuckles followed. Sonic started to, but held up for moment, looking back all who resided in the medical bay.

"Hang in there guys." Sonic said. "We'll get this sorted out."

"Don't worry, Sonic, we intend to." Rouge said. "This wrong-universe illness isn't going to start affecting me anytime soon. If any of these two start to give up the ghost..." she jabbed her head at Tails and Amy, "I'll make sure they don't. Now go and kick some bad guy butt."

Sonic grinned a little and went a joined the others in the cockpit.

Detaching from Space Colony ARK, the little ship reoriented itself in space, then started heading back to the planet below.

"So far so good." Maxwell said, adjusting their course to take them to Eggman's palace. "Hopefully, this last thing will be easy."

Knuckles snorted. "Don't count on it."

"Yeah, judging from what I've heard about Dark Sonic, he doesn't give without a fight." Sonic said, then paused. "Like me." he shook his head. "Dang it, Amanda was right."

"Amanda?" Knuckles said, surprised. "Amanda who?"

"Er, she's someone I met on the colony." Sonic admitted. "She stood guard over me. I was able to get a few answers out of her."

"Yeah but..." Knuckles began, "Just what _were _you doing on that colony?"

"I...er..." Sonic began.

"Wait a minute." Maxwell suddenly muttered to himself, looking at the ship's scanners.

Knuckles and Sonic turned to look at him.

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"There's a ship coming towards us." Maxwell said, looking up and out the front window. "There. See it?"

He pointed at a faint shape moving up from the planet's surface. As it drew closer, it became clear that the ship was nearly identical to their own.

"Huh." Knuckles said as the ship drew closer. "Who do you think it is?" he asked.

Sonic suddenly got a very bad feeling. "Maxwell, does this thing have shields?" he asked quickly.

"Um..." Maxwell began, scanning the control panel in front of him for a moment.

But it was a moment too long. The other ship suddenly fired upon their own. It shook and shuddered from the impact.

"Direct hit!" Maxwell said. "All systems down to fifty percent!"

"Uh-oh." Sonic said, turning to start collecting the Chaos Emeralds.

Another impact shook the ship, causing the lights to flicker.

"Another hit!" Maxwell announced. "It's trying to dock now!"

"Stop it!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I can't!" Maxwell said.

A dull thump rang out in the direct of the airlock. All three turned to look at it. A long moment of silence rang out, then the airlock's control panel suddenly sparked, and the door slid open.

There stood Dark Sonic.

Knuckles moved first, heading to attack Dark Sonic. Maxwell followed, but before either could even touch the hedgehog dopplegander, Dark Sonic pulled out some kind of weapon that released a wave of energy, knocking Knuckle and Maxwell back. Dark Sonic then chucked the weapon aside, turning to his double, who clutched five Chaos Emeralds and one Super Emerald in his hands. He only needed one more.

"You just don't obey the rules, do you?" he said to Sonic.

"Look who's talking." Sonic remarked. "What's this I hear about plans to take over a universe?"

"Oh, so you and your friends did figure that one out." Dark Sonic remarked. "Surprise, surprise. But now, we're going to settle this, just you and me."

"Fine." Sonic said, and grabbed the seventh and final emerald, then mentally harnessed the power they contained.

All seven emeralds flew from his hands and started to spin around him in a circle. Dark Sonic's eyes started to widen as he realized what was happening, and rushed forward, stepping into the circle of emeralds and grabbed Sonic. The two struggled for a moment, but Sonic saw with a smile that it was too late for his dopplegander.

He felt the combined powers of all seven emeralds begin to flow into him, and his transformation into Super Sonic begin. His flesh and fur turned golden, and within moments, Sonic felt the power he had pent up within him become available at his fingertips. The glow he himself produced lit the room. He allowed himself a moment to grin, and looked back at Maxwell and Knuckles. But their faces were greatly stunned, and it wasn't because of Sonic's transformation.

Alarmed now, Sonic turned to look at his dopplegander, in time for all seven emeralds drop to the floor, having turned black, save for the Super Emerald which still had a faint glow in it. But where there should have been a Dark Sonic was a hedgehog colored the darkest of black, with a smoky black aura hanging about him. Purple energy flashed between his fingertips in little arches.

Sonic suddenly realized he wasn't the only who transformed.

"What did you do?" he demanded from his double.

"The same thing you did, Sonic." Dark Sonic replied. "Only I drew the negative energy from the emeralds, not the positive energy, like you did. I am now what we call, Dark Super Sonic."


	18. Dark Sonic

C h a p t e r S e v e n t e e n

D a r k S o n i c

"I am now what we call, Dark Super Sonic."

Super Sonic gulped, realizing that this couldn't possibly be a good thing. Instinctively, he started to back up. Dark Super Sonic aided in this process, however, by shoving his double with abnormal strength, knocking Super Sonic into a wall.

Dark Super Sonic then started forward, but was stopped when a bolt of laser energy struck his face. It was merely absorbed and didn't harm Dark Super Sonic. But it did seem to annoy him. Glaring, he turned to look in the direction of the shot, looking at Maxwell, who had his laser pistol drawn.

Maxwell, not to be deterred, fired three more shots at Dark Super Sonic. All had the same effect as the first shot. Nothing. Looking really mad now, Dark Super Sonic gather together the energy pent up within him, and released a purple bolt of energy at Maxwell quickly ducked the bolt, and it hit the control panel behind him instead.

But Dark Super Sonic wasn't done yet. Snatching the pistol from Maxwell, he held it in his hand for a moment, then watched as it melted into a puddle of liquid metal. He was about to do something else to Maxwell, when Knuckles suddenly threw himself onto Dark Super Sonic. The negatively energized hedgehog simply flicked the echidna off of him.

It was then that Super Sonic sped into action, and plowed into his double, knocking him backward and towards the airlock, going from Maxwell's ship to Dark Sonic's. They bounced off the edge, disrupting the seal the airlock had on the two ships, and air started to hiss out into space. They then crashed to the floor. As the emergency systems engaged and closed the open airlock for both ships, the two Sonics battled for a few moments. Dark Super Sonic quickly got the advantage, grabbed a hold of Super Sonic, and hurled him towards the front window of the ship.

Super Sonic quickly phased and slipped through the window without damaging it and shot out into open space. He quickly looped around, passing back over Maxwell's ship as it undocked with Dark Sonic's, looping around it, then reentering Dark Sonic's ship by phasing through the floor of the craft.

There, Dark Super Sonic was waiting for his double. The moment Super Sonic came into view, he rammed him, and slammed him into the back wall with enough force that they blasted right through the wall of the ship, ripping it open. Shooting on back out into space, Super Sonic watched Dark Sonic's ship tumbled around and around, and Maxwell's ship to continue on downward towards the surface of the planet, looking like it was starting to loose control.

Glaring at his dopplegander, Super Sonic phased again, passed through Dark Super Sonic, then raced back towards Maxwell's ship. Dark Super Sonic let out an angry yell, and fired off two bolts of purple energy at Super Sonic. One narrowly skimmed past Super Sonic's shoulder, then both shots hit Dark Sonic's ship tumbling just before Super Sonic and blew it up, completely destroying the ship.

The blast struck Maxwell's ship, and made it loose control completely, hurling it haphazardly into the planet's atmosphere. Super Sonic knew that on that course, the ship risked burning up in the atmosphere, or just surviving reentry enough to crash into the planet's surface at tremendous speeds.

Alarmed, Super Sonic rushed towards the ship to keep that from happening. But just before he reached it, Dark Super Sonic suddenly sped out of nowhere and slammed into the of Super Sonic, knocking him into the atmosphere of the planet below them much faster than Maxwell's ship was even traveling.

They struck the atmosphere with such force it felt like slamming into a brick wall. Flames started to dance around them both as they plummeted. Enraged now himself, Super Sonic threw Dark Super Sonic from him, then hurled a ball of positive energy at his double. It hit Dark Super Sonic back several feet. The dopplegander then hurled his own attack at Super Sonic in the form of a large beam of purple energy.

It hit Super Sonic in the back, and pushed him forward, deeper into the atmosphere and into a layer of clouds. Super Sonic retaliated by repeating his first attack, and hurled the ball of energy. He shook a victorious fist when it hit Dark Super Sonic head on and watched for a few moments as he tumbled backwards and was lost from view in the clouds.

Super Sonic grinned for a few moments, then turned over to look downward, and saw the robotic metropolis of Dark Eggman's empire rushing towards him.

"Not good!" Super Sonic said, and quickly pulled up, zooming through the robotropolis at low levels, dodging skyscrapers.

For a moment, he thought everything was under control, then something exploded out of a skyscraper as Super Sonic zoomed past it, and surged towards him. It was Dark Super Sonic. Acting quickly, Super Sonic quickly grabbed his double by the quills as he surged towards him and threw him at the nearest building.

Not stopping to see if his attack worked, Super Sonic rushed forward and through the metropolis. He dimly noted that he recognized this area of the city, then started to pull up again to hurry back to Maxwell's falling ship, still somewhere in space, just about the enter the atmosphere.

He was unaware of the black form of Dark Super Sonic catching up behind him until the blast of energy the double released smashed into his back and made Super Sonic loose control of his flight. Dark Super Sonic then smashed into his back and plowed him into a nearby building. Crashing through the front window, then several walls, Super Sonic reached behind him and grabbed Dark Super Sonic's hands, then pulled him off his back, swung him around, then released.

Dark Super Sonic was sent hurtling back through several walls and out of the building again. Once outside, he started to reorient himself, seeing Super Sonic heading his way, he started to flee, but Super Sonic caught up with him, grabbed him by the feet, and hurled him back to the foot of the skyscraper they had just exited.

Dark Super Sonic struck it at the base and plowed through the ground. The whole building then shuddered, and collapsed.

"Ooh!" Super Sonic exclaimed with a grin, watching the cloud of dust rise into the air. "That has to hurt!"

But not as much as Super Sonic had hoped, for a moment later, Dark Super Sonic burst out of the rubble and charged Super Sonic. Super Sonic let him come until the very last possible moment, then swung a punch at the enraged and reckless Dark Super Sonic. The dopplegander smacked into it and flipped over in mid air.

"Remember, watch where you're going!" Super Sonic taunted.

"I'll hang you first!" Dark Super Sonic roared, and spun around, dealing a super kick to Super Sonic's middle.

The force of the kick sent Super Sonic hurtling and smashed into the side of an old, broken, vehicle.

"Way past cool." Dark Super Sonic said, turning around to leave.

He had hardly gotten three feet before Super Sonic plowed into him, and knocked him into the roof of a nearby skyscraper.

"Way, _way, _past cool!" Super Sonic corrected hotly, then grabbed Dark Super Sonic and hurled him into the ground, leaving a crater.

"Wait, that didn't count!" Super Sonic said, picking Dark Super Sonic up again, and hurled him through the side of the building.

As Dark Super Sonic was plowing through the building, Super Sonic quickly raced around the skyscraper to the other side, and waited for Dark Super Sonic to smash through the other side of the building. Grabbing his double as he continued forward, Super Sonic spun is opponent around, then hurled him toward the ground.

Dark Super Sonic plowed into the ground at an angle, leaving a long channel of broken ground in his wake. Getting weak, Dark Super Sonic started to pick himself up, but Super Sonic was step faster, grabbing his double around the neck, and lifting him high into the air.

"First, to cast out the evil in you." Super Sonic began, then started to channel the positive energy built up within him to react with the negative energy built up in Dark Super Sonic.

Not wanting to mix with the positive energy, the negative energy had nowhere to go, but out of Dark Super Sonic, lashing out in large purple bolts of energy. Slowly, Dark Super Sonic started to revert back into plain old Dark Sonic.

"Now," Super Sonic continued, moving to hover over a large garbage can, "to take out the trash."

And with that, Super Sonic dropped his double into the trash cans, and wiped the dust from his hands.

"That takes care of that." he said, then, remembering his friends back on the ship, rushed upward to intercept the ship.

* * *

By this point, the ship was well within the atmosphere, about to enter the bank of polluted clouds that hung over most of the planet. Inside, Maxwell gripped the controls tightly as he tried to level off their descent and slow them down.

"You're going too fast!" Knuckles exclaimed, holding on as the ship trembled violently.

"I know!" Maxwell yelled, as the ship shot into the layer of clouds. "I'm trying to slow us down!"

But he still hadn't succeeded tp stabilize their descent as they shot back through the clouds and saw the metropolis below them shooting towards them.

"Maxwell..." Knuckles said, worried.

"I see it!" Maxwell said, trying to pull the ship up, but the controls weren't responding. "There's nothing I can do!"

Then, he caught sight of a yellow streak zipping towards the ship.

* * *

Super Sonic charged the falling ship, and smacked right into it's noise, trying to slow it down. The ship resisted, pushing him backwards towards the ground. Super Sonic wasn't going to give up, and pushed back. Slowly, the ship started to slow down, but Super Sonic feared it wasn't going to be soon enough. Turning back to look at the ground rapidly speeding towards them both, he gripped the nose of the ship, and used all of the energy he had left to try and bring the nose up, the level off the whole ship.

Down they continued to fall. Feeling sweat from both worry and the strain, Super Sonic pushed harder to try and slow the ship and level it off. Feeling the hull dent and bend under his hands, he looked behind him and saw the roof of a skyscraper rushing towards him. Quickly, despite how tired he felt and knowing he was running low on Chaos energy, Super Sonic redoubled his efforts.

Finally, he started to make real progress, he nose of the ship finally starting to rise, bringing the ship to fly parallel with the land below it, and the ship started to slow as well. It's wingtips skimming the top of the skyscraper, the ship cleared the building, and started to fly on a much more safe course.

Maxwell then took over, regaining control over the ship, and brought the ship up to a slightly higher altitude. Grinning, he gave Super Sonic a thumbs up, watching the hedgehog through the front window. Tired, Super Sonic returned the thumbs up, then promptly passed out, letting the momentum of the ship press him against it's hull. Slowly, he started to change back to his normal form of Sonic.

"Knuckles!" Maxwell exclaimed.

Acting quickly, Knuckles leapt from his seat and rushed to the airlock, opening it. A rush of air blew past him, then he stuck his head out. Sonic was still on the nose of ship, looking like the ship had ran into him, and that the hedgehog was plastered to it's hull. Then, Sonic slowly started to slip off the nose, and came free, getting blow past the ship as it sped onward.

As Sonic tumbled past the airlock, Knuckles quickly grabbed the blue hedgehog's hand, and pulled him to safety, within the ship. This done, Knuckles closed the airlock door, and placed the still-unconscious form of Sonic in a nearby chair.

"Is he okay?" Maxwell asked, putting the ship into autopilot.

"I think so." Knuckles said, checking for a pulse, and finding a steady one. "He seems to be okay."

Maxwell pulled out his scanner and waved it over Sonic a few times. For a moment, he was silent.

"Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news." Maxwell said.

"Okay, what's the good news?" Knuckles asked.

"The good news is that battle hasn't seriously hurt Sonic." Maxwell explained. "He should be completely all right after he's had a few moments to rest."

"Fine." Knuckles said. "So what's the _bad _news?"

"Sonic is starting to succumb to the effects of overexposure to this universe as well." Maxwell said. "His condition will only weaken from here on out."

"Then we need to hurry." Knuckles proclaimed. "Let's go destroy those stupid plans for the emerald supercharger and get out of here!"

"Agreed." Maxwell said, sitting back down at the controls of the ship.

Bringing it around, he laid in a course for Dark Eggman's fortress...


	19. Super Emerald

Things are starting to wrap up now.

C h a p t e r E i g h t e e n

S u p e r E m e r a l d

Sonic regained consciousness slowly, and had the start of a headache beginning. He moaned, and looked around to see the interior of the ship. "Oh." he said. "When did I get back in here?"

"Only after you nearly got blown away." Knuckles remarked from a nearby chair.

"Glad to hear you awake, Sonic!" Maxwell added from his pilots chair. "We're heading towards Eggman's fortress to get rid of the plans for the emerald super charger."

"And the sooner we do that the better." Knuckles added.

"Couldn't agree more." Sonic said. "This whole place is _really _starting to get on my nerves."

"There's more to it than that." Maxwell said, then sighed. "Sonic, you're starting to succumb to the effects of overexposure in a foreign universe."

Sonic looked blank for a moment. "You mean that weird illness that'll eventually kill me if we don't go home soon?" he asked.

"Yeah." Knuckles said.

"Oh." Sonic said, then shrugged. "That explains the headache."

"Yes, that's usually one of the first symptoms." Maxwell agreed.

Sonic suddenly thought of something. "Wait, Max, this effect effects everyone who's left our universe to come here, right?" he asked.

"Yes." Maxwell replied.

"Then Eggman wouldn't be excluded, would he?" Sonic asked.

Maxwell started to reply, then widened his eyes as he realized he had nearly forgotten this fact. "You're right!" he exclaimed. He quickly ran a few calculations through his head. "That means that Eggman's already well into the effects of the illness!"

"Well, then, that's a good thing!" Knuckles said. "He'll be easy to deal with. Heck, we could even leave him here once this is all over and let him suffer the fate he should've gotten years ago."

"I wish I could share your vote of confidence, Knuckles." Maxwell said.

"Look, I think we're on to something." Sonic said, standing up. "And I've got an idea. When we arrive at the fortress, here's what we should do..."

* * *

When an unauthorized ship arrived at the fortress, the robots did exactly what they were programmed to. Treat it as an enemy ship, and awaited for the occupants to come out. If they didn't they would storm the ship. But they had no need, for Maxwell, Knuckles, and Sonic all stepped off the ship. The robots quickly captured them. The three did not resist, and willingly let themselves be escorted to Eggman's throne room.

They found everything to be looking the same as always, with the Eggman of their universe sitting in his throne. But he seemed to be asleep, and was very pale. A robot was sitting before him, and looked to be awaiting an order.

"I wonder how long those two have been like that." Maxwell wondered out loud.

"Do you think he's already gone?" Sonic asked, realizing just how pale Eggman looked.

"No, he's breathing." Knuckles assured them. "I can see his fat chest rising and falling."

"Emperor Robotnik, we have prisoners for you to interrogate." the lead robot who had captured them reported.

Eggman did not respond.

"Emperor Robotnik, we have prisoners for you to interrogate." the robot repeated after a moment.

Eggman still didn't respond. Maxwell, Knuckles, and Sonic all looked at each other for a moment.

"EGGMAN!" they all exclaimed at the same time.

Eggman suddenly snapped awake, sweaty. He looked around, and saw the prisoners. "What the...?" he said. "When did you get here?"

"Just now." Maxwell replied.

"But you were too busy being a couch potato to notice." Sonic added.

Eggman frowned, and sat up, wining as his head throbbed. "Get out of here, you guys." he said to the robot guards.

The robots obediently left. Eggman then glared at the trio. "All right, what do _you _guys want?" he demanded. "Don't you know I've got enough trouble on my hands?"

"Oh yes, we know about Dark Sonic blackmailing you." Knuckles said.

"So let me guess, you're here to stop me from giving him the plans for the emerald supercharger." Eggman deduced.

"Ooh, you're a quick study Egghead." Sonic quipped.

"Well, forget it." Eggman said. "Dark Sonic can do what he wants in our universe, for all I care." he paused, then added, "Where is he, anyway?"

"Exploring the unknown territories of trash can." Sonic said.

Eggman gave him an odd look.

"Look Eggman, there's more going on than you realize." Maxwell said. "I note that you aren't feeling you're best."

"What?" Eggman exclaimed, standing up. "I'm feeling just fine, I'll have..." he suddenly wobbled dangerously, and sat down quickly. "...er...maybe I feel just a little off." he finally admitted.

"What you're feeling is due to your prolonged stay in this universe." Maxwell explained. "The longer you stay here, the worse it gets."

"It'll kill ya if you stay here for too long, Eggman." Sonic said.

"Not that we care, though." Knuckles added.

"How does this concern you three?" Eggman asked.

"Same thing's happening to us." Sonic said. "We just haven't been here nearly as long, though, so it hasn't affected us as much just yet."

"So you want to get out of here." Eggman suggested.

"Yeah, which we can do at anytime." Knuckles added.

Eggman looked surprised at this news. "When did you do that?"

"After we got a Super Emerald." Maxwell said.

"Naturally charged one too." Sonic added with a grin. "As such, it's become really handy."

"My, you all really _have _been busy." Eggman said.

"Yeah, and we did it all while you sat in that chair." Knuckles added with a smirk.

Eggman frowned, but did not comment.

"So, are ya going to give us the plans or not?" Sonic asked.

Eggman hesitated.

"Are they even finished?" Maxwell asked.

"Oh, they're finished, I can assure you that, my hedgehog friend." Eggman said. "I've put them someplace safe, and have been waiting for Dark Sonic to return."

"Well, he's not coming anytime soon, so might as well give them to the next best person." Sonic said, stepping forward.

Eggman, however, made no motion to comply.

"Look, you don't even have to leave the chair you clearly love so much." Knuckles added. "Just tell it where the plans are, and we'll get them ourselves."

Eggman turned to glare at the echidna. "You do realize that it's not that simple, right?" he asked. "In reality, destroying the plans won't stop Dark Sonic at all. Because those plans are still right here, no matter what." Eggman tapped his forehead.

Maxwell slapped his face. "Of course." he mumbled in dismay. "Dark Sonic would only force Eggman to redraw the plans yet again." he sighed. "We're right back at square one."

"Maybe not." Eggman said, and leaned forward a little. "Fortunately for all of you, I'm always willing to make a bargain."

"You? Bargain?" Sonic said with a snort. "Ha! That'll be the day."

"Shut up, hedgehog." Eggman said. "But listen. I'm willing to give you the plans and stop Dark Sonic on one condition."

"And what's that condition?" Knuckles asked.

"You take me back to our universe as well." Eggman said.

Sonic and the others looked dumbfounded.

"But, you said you didn't care about our universe, that you loved it here!" Maxwell objected. "This universe is everything you've ever worked to build!"

"And it is!" Eggman agreed. "But I don't have any real power here! I've been manipulated since I arrived here! Here, I'm a mere pawn, forced to do what others want! Back home, I may not have the power anymore, but at least I'm free to do what I want." he noticed Sonic's doubting look, and added, "Well, to a certain extent."

"Like we'd really let you back to our universe, where you can cause trouble for us _all over again_!" Knuckles said.

"You can't leave me here, either way, though." Eggman pointed out. "Not while I know how to build an emerald supercharger."

"I've got a better idea." Sonic said. "We'll just keep Dark Sonic away from you until this wrong universe illness...thing...makes you bite it. Then we can get rid of the plans, stop Dark Sonic, _and _be rid of you, Eggman."

"But Sonic, the longer we stay here, the more that same illness affects us!" Maxwell pointed out. He rubbed his chin for a moment. "Maybe I could build a device that could wipe the memory of Eggman's plans from his mind..."

"Are you going to agree to this or not?" Eggman asked. "I won't settle for anything less."

Maxwell ran a few numbers through his head for a few moments, finally coming to a conclusion. "All right, fine, we agree." he said.

"MAXWELL!" Sonic and Knuckles exclaimed together.

"Look, he's right, we don't have much of choice." Maxwell said. "But no funny business Eggman, or the deal's off. And once we're back in our universe, we're all allowed to leave, got it?"

"Understood." Eggman said with a grin. He stood weakly, and approached the robot that had been sitting before his throne during all of this. "Open." he grunted.

The robot's top sprang open. Eggman reached into it and pulled out the completed plans for the emerald supercharger.

Sonic was dumbfounded. "You mean the plans were right there the whole time?" he asked, bewildered. "Dang it! If I knew that five minutes ago..."

"Oh hush, what's done is done." Maxwell said, snatching the plans from Eggman, giving the evil scientist an annoyed look, then pulled out what looked like a pen.

However, when he clicked it, a thin laser beam shot out of it. Maxwell brought the beam into contact with the plans, and watched as the plans instantly caught fire. He dropped them to the ground, where they continued to burn. For a few moments, they all stood watching the plans turn into ashes, becoming completely useless.

Finally, Sonic spoke. "Let's get out of here before something goes wrong." he said.

* * *

Later, Maxwell, Sonic, Knuckles, and Eggman stood in the room they had arrived in this universe in, supporting the unconscious Tails and Amy and the injured Rouge. Sonic held up the Super Emerald.

"We all ready?" he asked.

"I was ready to go back hours ago, if that's what you're asking." Rouge remarked.

"Yeah, we're good to go, Sonic." Knuckles clarified.

"Okay." Sonic said, and grasped the Super Emerald tighter, concentrating as he looked into it's bright, green, glow. "Chaos...CONTROL!"

A blinding flash of light appeared, filling the room. When it vanished, it revealed that every occupant in the room and disappeared. A clinking sound rang out as the Super Emerald, now reverting back to a Chaos Emerald, hit the floor...


	20. Homecoming

Last Chapter.

C h a p t e r N i n e t e e n

H o m e c o m i n g

As the bright light subsided, everyone started to look around. No longer visible was the interior of Dark Eggman's fortress, or anything else of the Dark Universe. Now, they all stood within Eggman's laboratory in his hideout, left almost exactly as they all had left it. A collective sigh was released from everybody.

"We're back." Sonic said with a sigh.

"Yes!" Knuckles said, also relieved.

"I'd celebrate too, but it's kinda hard when you can't even hold yourself up." Rouge said with a grin, from where she leaned on Maxwell.

"We'll get you some proper medical care here shortly." Maxwell said, setting Rouge down next to the unconscious forms of Amy and Tails. "But there's one more thing we need to take care of first."

Eggman, who seemed to have recovered quickly and was now looking around his lab, glanced at Maxwell. "You mean Dark Eggman." he said.

"He's got to be around here somewhere." Maxwell reasoned.

"He's probably in no shape to give a fight, though." Sonic said. "Because the same thing that happened to us has undoubtably happened to him."

"So where is he?" Knuckles asked, looking around.

"I have a pretty good idea." Eggman said, heading for the door. "Since you furballs won't leave until he's taken care of, you'd better follow me."

He led the way out of the lab and down the short hallway, stepping onto the spiral staircase that led down to the lower levels of the hideout. Sonic and Knuckles followed, leaving Maxwell with the others. They took a few steps down, then paused in a broken window, and looked outside.

"Well, looks like Dark Eggman's been busy either way." Sonic remarked flatly.

Outside, surrounding the building, was the full forces of the United Federation Army, armed to the teeth.

"What in the world did Dark Eggman threaten to do?" Knuckles asked, amazed. "I mean, you've never gotten the full forces of the United Federation gathered to one spot so easily with one threat, Eggman, and that's saying something!"

Eggman, surprisingly, nodded. "Yes, I could use a few tips from Dark Eggman." he said.

"Well, you ain't getting them." Sonic said. "C'mon, let's go find his fat highness."

They made their way deeper into the hideout, entering into the previously unexplored lowered portions of the facility. Scattered everywhere were deactivated robots, left there from when they had been deactivated by Maxwell back before they all wound up in the alternate reality. Several of them had been opened, and they looked like someone had tried to manually reactivate them, and failed.

"Well, Dark Eggman's been busy." Knuckles said, kicking one of these robots.

"But the robots cannot be reactivated in such a way." Eggman murmured, studying the insides of one of the robots. "Didn't he figure that out?"

"Clearly not." Sonic said, seeing that there were many, many, more robots like this in the area.

"Maybe I don't want tips from him after all." Eggman said.

"Personally, I don't care either way, let's just find the stupid guy." Knuckles grumbled, pressing on.

It wasn't long after that before they found Dark Eggman, sprawled out on the floor, too weak to stand, due to overexposure from being in an alternate reality. Held loosely in one hand was a green Chaos Emerald, the very same one that had landed them in this mess in the first place. Sonic looked him over, and saw that he was conscious.

Dark Eggman rolled over and looked up at the threesome. "You must have all come back from my universe." he muttered weakly.

"Way to go, Sherlock!" Sonic praised comically. "And now that we're here, what are you going to do?"

"I'd _like _to capture you all." Dark Eggman said, trying to sit up, but failing. "But it seems some kind of illness has befallen me."

"That would be due to you being in this universe for too long." Knuckles explained.

"At least, that's how we understand it." Sonic said with a smirk. "Maxwell used bigger words."

"Negative reactions with foreign elements, of course." Dark Eggman muttered. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Only a _true _genius like me would've figured it out." Eggman said with a prideful grin.

The others gave him an annoyed look.

"So, um, for curiosity's sake, what exactly have you been doing here?" Eggman asked after a moment, changing the subject.

"I was _trying _to reactivate the robots, but you've designed them to be far too complicated, much more than necessary." Dark Eggman grumbled at his double. "If and when I had succeeded, I would've used them to start a takeover of this universe's world."

"But why?" Sonic asked. "You've already got all that in your reality."

"Yes, but it's boring!" Dark Eggman said. "I _miss _not having to fight to gain control! There's no fun in not having a world to conquer!"

Eggman thought about that for a moment. "You know, he has a point." he said.

"Oh, shut up, _doctor_." Knuckles said.

"What else have you done?" Sonic demanded from Dark Eggman. "Why is this place surrounded by the United Federation?"

"Immediately after I set you and your companions to my universe, I announced my plans to take over the world, and that I had all the resources I needed to start." Dark Eggman explained. "If they didn't willingly surrender to me in seventy-two hours, I would start a war."

"You did _what_?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic, however, laughed. "You automatically presumed that your fatso double of this universe already had all the resources you needed stashed away somewhere, didn't you?" he asked. "You made a threat you couldn't fulfill!"

"Yes, yes, so my hindsight is twenty-twenty." Dark Eggman muttered. "I worked to try and fix the problem, but had no success. And then this accursed sickness got to me..."

"Well, we're taking you back home, so you can work things out there." Sonic said, as he started to lift Dark Eggman to his feet. Not getting anywhere, he grabbed Eggman's arm and motioned for him to help.

Knuckles picked up the Chaos Emerald, eyeing it for a moment. He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Sonic." he said, and stepped over to whisper something in the hedgehog's ear.

Sonic's face brightened. "Good idea, Knux." he said. "You and Egghead get his dark double up to the lab. I'll be back in a flash."

And with that, he dashed off, speeding away and vanishing from sight within a second.

* * *

Not too long later, Maxwell had the Chaos Emerald converted into a Super Emerald. Lifting it from Eggman's emerald supercharger, he started to hand it to Dark Eggman. The double started to accept it, but before he could, Maxwell whipped it away.

"Oh, no you don't." Maxwell said. "I don't trust you with this thing, not after what happened _last _time. Sonic'll send you back."

"What?" Dark Eggman objected. "Then why did you even move to hand it to me?"

Maxwell merely grinned cruelly and didn't answer.

The sound of rapidly pounding feet reaching their ears announced Sonic's return. "I'm back!" he said, screeching to a halt in the doorway of the room. He hadn't even broken into a sweat. "Sorry it took so long. Took me a few seconds to get past all those United Federation guys out there. Anyway, here you go, Max."

He discreetly handed Maxwell an object, who accepted it and pocketed it. "Thank you Sonic." Maxwell said, and handed him the Super Emerald. "You know what to do, right?"

"Yep." Sonic said with a grin. "Use Chaos Control to teleport Dark Eggman back to his universe, but also not teleport myself. How hard can it be? I mean, if Dark Eggmoron could do it, why can't I?"

"You'd better get it right, though, because we're not going after you." Rouge remarked from where she sat against the wall.

Knuckles helped her to her feet and escorted her out of the lab. "We don't need any commentaries from you, you know." he said.

He came back to help Maxwell move the still-unconscious Tails and the stirring Amy out to the hallway. Eggman looked to Sonic, who gave him a "well?" expression, then retreated to the safety of the hallway. Sonic then lifted up the Super Emerald.

"You ready, dark lard?" Sonic asked Dark Eggman.

Dark Eggman simply nodded his head. "Sure you can do this?" he asked, though.

Sonic gave him a glare. "What makes you think I can't?"

"Well, I estimate it took you all roughly about a day to figure out how to get back to your own universe." Dark Eggman said. "Clearly, if it took you that long to do it, then you must not be very..."

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Sonic exclaimed, interrupting.

The two vanished from sight for a moment in the bright light the Super Emerald produced. When it faded, only Sonic remained. Grinning, Sonic watched the Super Emerald revert back into a Chaos Emerald in his hands.

"Well, that takes care of that." he said, tossing the emerald to Maxwell. "Now let's get out of here."

He, Maxwell, and Knuckles all started to collect their unconscious and/or injured comrades and turning to leave.

"Not so fast."

The group paused, and turned back to see that Eggman stood behind them with a weapon of some sort held at the ready. Rouge sighed.

"Knew he'd try to double-cross us." Maxwell muttered.

"Eggman, we get to go free." Sonic reminded flatly. "That was part of the deal."

"So it was." Eggman said. "But I never agreed to you leaving with the Chaos Emerald."

This time Knuckles sighed, frustrated.

"What do you think, Max?" Sonic asked his scientist friend.

"We're not exactly in a position to fight, here, Sonic." Maxwell admitted.

"I'm waiting..." Eggman said.

"Hey, we're figuring things out here!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Yeah, what he said!" Rouge added.

"Look, just give me the Chaos Emerald, and all you furballs leave happy and care free!" Eggman said with a smirk. "How hard can it be?"

"Harder than you'd think." Sonic said, then sighed, looking at Maxwell. "Go ahead Max, give it to him."

Maxwell nodded solemnly, and pulled an emerald from his pocket, and tossed it to Eggman. The evil scientist caught it in his hand, and lowered his weapon. He grinned.

"Have a good day, now!" he teased, and with a laugh, stepped into the laboratory, slamming the door behind him, leaving the others to find their own way out.

Unfortunately for Eggman, by doing this, he never saw the wink that was exchanged between Sonic and Maxwell...

* * *

Tails awoke to a splitting headache. Wincing, he opened his eyes, and saw he was in a sparsely decorated medical room of some sort. Turning his head to one side, he saw Sonic sitting nearby.

"Hey, little buddy." Sonic said. "Glad you decided to join the land of the living."

Tails looked past Sonic, and saw Amy, having already regained consciousness, sitting up in another bed, reading a book. Past her in another bed was a heavily bandaged Rouge, who was having a very feisty argument with Knuckles. Standing nearby, working with his handheld computer was Maxwell.

"W-where am I?" Tails asked, feeling like he had missed something.

"In one of the United Federation's best medical facilities, courtesy of the president himself." Sonic said.

"Then that means we're back in our universe, then!" Tails said, feeling both excited and relieved at the same time.

"Yep."

"How'd you do it, Sonic?"

"Well, it wasn't easy little buddy. As I understand it, after Maxwell picked you and Knuckles up, they went to Angel Island to get some Chaos Emeralds, found Rouge there as well as Dark Knuckles. They fought with him briefly and managed to obtain a Super Emerald in the process, then caught up with me on Space Colony ARK. After they picked me up, I fought with Dark Super Sonic..."

"Cool."

"...then we met up with our Eggman. Saw we couldn't get back without him coming with, so we agreed to take him back. Then we got here, sent Dark Eggman back to where he belonged, and well, that's pretty much it."

"Gee, I sure missed a lot." Tails noted, rubbing at his head.

"That's what you get for sleeping for so long." Sonic joked.

Tails grinned.

"How you feelin', anyway?" Sonic asked.

"Better than I did before, that's for sure." Tails said. He was silent for a moment. "So we still have to deal with Eggman, huh?"

"Yep."

"Well, I guess not everything can go right." Tails admitted. "What I find odd is that Eggman just let you go after we all got back to our universe?"

"Well..." Sonic began, "Not exactly. He, uh, demanded he keep the Chaos Emerald, and he's still got the supercharger, so uh..."

"You didn't agree to that, though, did you Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Er..." Sonic began, "Kinda didn't have a choice, little buddy. Had to give him something in order to escape."

Tails's eyes widened. "But that means Eggman's still out there with a Chaos Emerald!" he exclaimed.

"Ah, but whoever said we gave him a Chaos Emerald?" Sonic asked with a smirk.

Tails looked blank for a moment. "You mean you didn't..."

"Nope." Sonic said, grinning. "Gave him a fake one. Consequently the very same fake emerald Eggman tried to swap with the real emerald when he stole the emerald in the first place. Knux had left it in your workshop, so while everyone was working out how to get Dark Eggman back, I zipped on over to grab it. Gave it to ol' Egghead when he stopped us. He didn't suspect a thing."

Tails grinned, but it was short-lived. "But Eggman still has the emerald supercharger." he objected. "He would still have uses for that."

"Oh, don't worry, we took care of that, too." Sonic said. He turned to Maxwell. "Speaking of which, everything on that end worked out all right, right Max?"

"Yep." Maxwell said. "When Eggman goes to use that supercharger again..." he chuckled. "Boy, will he ever be in for a surprise."

* * *

Carefully, Eggman lowered the emerald into the supercharger, and, grinning, rushed over to the device's control panel, typing in commands. The device activated quickly, and the emerald started to glow. And glow. And glow.

Then it blew up, spraying emerald-colored shards of glass everywhere.

Eggman looked stunned, then swept up some of the shards into his hands, and realized for the first time that he had been given a fake. Letting the shards fall from his hand, his eyes widened as he realized he had been tricked. It was then that he remembered that the machine was still running, and turned back to it's control panel.

He blinked at the alert he saw flashing on the screen, saying the device had a fatal, internal, error, and wasn't having it's power regulated properly. Alarmed, Eggman ducked down and tore off one of the metal panels covering the device, and saw that a very key wire and been cut. Eggman's eyes widened as he realized what this would do to the machine.

Then, seconds later, the machine blew up.

A little while later, a ash-covered and slightly scorched Eggman exited the now ruined and smoke fill lab, coughing and sputtering. After a moment of this, he let out an angry roar, knowing exactly who had caused all of this.

"I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!" he exclaimed.

But no one was around to hear it.

* * *

_Yeah, that's the end. But I've got an idea for a potential sequel, so if you all review, maybe I'll write it..._

_Actually, I'll probably write it either way, but hey, if it means I'll get some reviews... :p_


End file.
